Rebache
by SGTLEGENDKILLER
Summary: The story of Sam Kampten, an illegal street racer who is at the top of his game in the Texan racing circuit. Despite his well off situation, something dangerous is brewing. Will his Dodge Challenger and his perfected driving abilities help him survive an invasion of a parallel version of Earth?
1. Act 1 Chapter 1: Sam Kampten

SGTLEGENDKILLEЯ

Rebache

Prologue

_PL &amp; A1C1 Track _

_Click Click Boom ~ Saliva (Every Six Seconds)_

D: 5:32 p.m. June 5th, 2016

Location: Mid Texas, United States

My name is Sam Kampten.

I was never the talkative type; I never was into parties; I was never was much for the trash talk or hierarchical pyramidal drama or any bullshit hipster crap the usual kids in their mid-20s desperately tried to cling as they drowned in the real world. Begging for things was never a cliché I cashed in on as I wasn't raised with the silver spoon.

All of these random thought raged through my mind as I was surrounded by a blurred canvas of whatever environment I was passing through. I let my mind numb back down to an instinctual state as I physically took in the vibrations emitting from the speakers of my 2012 Dodge Challenger SRT. Through the speakers blasted an assortment of Nu-metal classics; it just set the right mood for me in my current situation. Right now I was doing what would make me money, something that I had always just been good at.

Sam's attention snapped suddenly as he noticed a public bus begin crossing the intersection ahead. He swiftly acted and snapped the wheel of his car to the right to put the car as far to the side of the road as it could be without going onto the sidewalk. Through the red light he raced as he darted the mass of the car around the front of the moving bus in such a fashion that was just inches from a suicidal collision. Once passed the near death situation he continued to accelerate quickly as he moved back into the middle of the right side of the road. He could see in his rearview several following vehicles following with their high beams on. They desperately tried to stay with Sam as he rocketed down the street.

Sam led the following pack down the road for nearly 20 seconds, in that time some had gained some ground on him. To his right flank crept a grey 2013 Nissan GT-R and to his left flank was a White 2012 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. Further back, more cars followed but could not match the three at the front. The two flanking Sam would not have that much time to catch up as a left turn was planned at the next intersection. Sam let off the gas and allowed for the vehicle's mass to help slow down as he switched to his brake pedal with his other foot. The Challenger and the two cars flanking all slowed down in unison for the turn; the LR1 and GT-R had a bit of an 'argument' on how much room one would allow for the other. Sam had barely dropped below the 75 mph mark before he began to make the turn across the oncoming lanes. The flanking cars stayed close to him to make a pocket of open road that was between traffic. Sam began to push the gas pedal down mid turn and eased off of the brakes, smoothly making the turn easily without losing traction on the back tires. The GT-R followed closely to Sam and the LR1 was not very lucky in keeping all of its traction around the turn and thus began to slide around.

The Challenger again rocketed down the road; the sound of the supercharger wailed loudly within the interior of the car as it pumped all it had into converting many horses into forward motion. Sam kept on heading straight down the road, occasionally darting around a car in one of the two lands on the right hand side of the road. The GT-R stayed with him fiercely the whole time; it mocked his movement to a point. Despite the effort, the GT-R and LR1 backed down as they passed a chalk line drawn on the road. Sam's foot eased off of the accelerator and began to downshift as the Challenger began to decrease its speed. The pack of cars that were behind Sam began to finally catch up and followed behind him as they all seemed to follow in unison.

They all continued on until the entire line of cars halted on the shoulder of the road. As soon as they did several masked men ran for the line of the cars from an alleyway on the opposite side of the road. Sam rolled down his passenger side window just before one of the men tossed a wrapped package into the seat as he sprinted past the car side towards the GT-R behind Sam where he would do the Sam. As soon as the package hit the passenger seat Sam peeled off down the street. Through the gears he shifted as the Challenger raced further down the road and out of the town for county roads. Sam turned down the music and listened closely to the police scanner that was tucked under the passenger side of the dashboard to hear if any law enforcement were near. To match his luck with his win, the nearest police officer was on the other side of town it would turn out. Sam smiled as he changed course down a dirt road just outside of the town. He easily navigated the dirt as it ventured off to connect to other smaller roads than he was on. The radio buzzed loudly with the cops having no idea where they were and with only two accurate descriptions of the eight vehicles in total. After a few minutes of changing paths onto more reclusive roads Sam was in little doubt of any police attention.

"_Another acceptable win"_ He smiled as he flipped a little switch under his steering column to move a black plate that blocked his license plate from view. This was good for him.

The walkie talkie between the front seats buzzed softly. "Hey, Sammy? You there?" A voice called out."

"What's up Ali?" Sam asked as he picked up the walkie talkie.

"Man… I know you got the mad itch… but when you gonna let some other people win, bro?" The voice asked.

"I don't know… You need to just go faster next time, Ali."

"Pttf. If that was so easy, Sammy K." Ali scoffed.

"Hey, maybe if you took that stupid drifting wing off of the back of your Camaro you would go faster." Sam chuckled.

"Yeah, yeah… whatever. See you soon Crazy K. Out." The radio clicked as Ali shut his end off.

Sam smiled slightly as he dropped the walkie onto the passenger seat.

He tightened the grip on the steering wheel as he turned onto pavement once again, this time with ease. This was his life; racing and cars. It was how he made his living and he lived quite comfortably with what he got from it all. He once again smiled slightly as a police officer passed by on the oncoming side of the roads; its lights and siren blaring out as it sped unknowingly by one of the racing participants. Sam glanced in the mirror to watch the police officer disappear down the street towards the town Sam had just left. He had made a successful escape away.

~Rebache~

Act I Chapter I

"Sammy K"

D: 8:05 p.m. June 5th, 2016

Location: Mid Texas, United States

Sam walked along the side of the parking lot of a small in-town plaza. With his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket, he casually looked around at the passing stores to make the walk anything less than boring. There was nothing much for the plaza to strike his fancy with what little it had; this was only a few cars spread out through the parking spots and maybe only half of the store spaces in use. The was a new 2016 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 that rolled passed to much surprise; it's yellow and black paint job of the sleek, jet-like car seemed to steal all of the attention of its surrounding with its deep rumbling growl. Sam mentally approved the car as it rolled past him, although he couldn't make out who the driver was as it was getting dark. The car left and the parking lot seemed a lot less lively, leaving him to walk past the small variety of what the plaza had. The unimpressive list of stores was not much besides the generic nail and/or hair salon and a Chinese restaurant.

He stopped soon at the end of the plaza where a GameStop sat with its glass front greatly illuminated with the next propagandized Call of Duty rip off. After taking a brief moment to see what flashy cool feature the game was offering as pre order, Sam sighed in annoyance and entered the store. The door closed behind him when he stepped inward and then he slowly made his way around the store and all of its console sections that divided the store's floor. Soon a female sales associate came over to him from behind the counter.

"Hey babe!" The female hugged him tightly.

"Hi Nicky! How are you?" Sam gave a smile as he held her hug with his arm around her and his hand against her dirty blonde hair.

"I am fine… I'll be better when I get out of work though…" She sighed and looked up at him with her hazel eyes.

"Was today a bad day?" Sam asked as he looked around to see if they were busy; they were not.

"No… Just one of those days… My feet and back are giving my issues…"

"Are the 'girls' being hefty today?" Sam smirked as his eyes darted briefly to her ample chest.

"Samuel!" Her eyes widened and with a blush she tightly crossed her arms over her chest.

Sam gave a chuckle.

"No touch for you." She teased him.

"Whatever… where is Pete?" Sam asked; Pete was one of her regular coworkers.

"He is in the back stocking shelves or something."

"Is it just you two today?"

"Yup…" She brushed her hair back behind her ear with her hand as she looked down.

"He will be out soon… He always seems to crawl out of nowhere when I get here… maybe it has to do with his native blood."

"Ha ha… Funny… He is a Native American and he is quiet… hardy harr harr" She mocked him sarcastically.

"You know I'm kidding, hun." Sam rolled eyes.

"Yeah, but you are still a dumbass." She giggled slightly.

"Hi Sam!" A male voice called from the room of the back of the store.

"Hey Pete. How is it going?" Sam greeted with a smile.

"Oh you know… Trying to keep your girlfriend on a leash." Nicky gave him a playful grimace.

"Don't pull on the leash too hard. She likes that" The two guys chuckled.

"So what you doin' here, Sam? You getting a ride with her again? Your car in the shop again?"

Pete prodded as he leaned against the checkout counter.

"Yeah. The car is in again. Got a few more parts for it." Sam answered knowing full well his car was not.

"Shit… you're going to have a race car soon if you keep getting parts for it." Pete chuckled.

"Yeah… Oh well. It just means I can spend the night at her house." Sam smiled.

"I don't have a problem with it… We are closing in half an hour." Nicky looked at Sam.

"I'll wait then." Sam smiled.

"We could get out faster if you wanted to help." Pete suggested.

Sam rolled his eyes with a sigh before he agreed to Pete and began to help the two wrap up for the evening. "Sure… I'll meet you in the back, Pete."

"Good… I'll be back in a minute." Pete sighed as he left the two.

After Pete left there was an awkward pause before Nicky spoke up. "You went 'out' again didn't you?"

Sam just smiled slightly.

There wasn't all that much to do other than running a vacuum and closing the main checkout down as well as a few other miscellaneous tasks. Nicky seemed to grow cold and quiet as they finished up for whatever reason; or rather, a very specific reason. He knew she was piecing together his conversation with Pete with his car; she harshly disproved his involvement with street racing. Soon the place was locked up and he got into Nicky's sand colored 1967 VW Baja Bug and the two took off for her place.

Sam looked out the passenger window of Nicky's car. He bounced slightly in the old cracked leather seats as Nicky drove over some potholes in the road. The mildly loud enclosed cabin seemed very quiet this trip; Nicky was quite upset and Sam knew that if he said anything it would spark an argument. He knew very well that she hated his involvement with the local street racing groups. He sighed slightly and rested his head against the plastic panel where the seatbelt was connected to. His quiet was interrupted by a sigh that escaped Nicky's mouth.

"How is your mother?" Sam asked, trying to break the ice.

"She is fine." She answered in a very tense manner before sighing again.

"Babe, what is wrong?" Sam looked at her, unleashing the gates of whatever hell she would throw at him.

She seemed to swallow some emotion before getting furiously vocal towards him. "Why do you keep doing this?!" She asked loudly in terms of his racing profession.

"This again?" Sam rolled his eyes.

"Yes!" 

"I do it because I'm very good at it and it makes a lot of money!" Sam stempted to justify his racing.

"But it is dangerous, Sam!" She told him, emphasizing the 'dangerous' part.

"Nicky, I've told you before: I have a roll bar and a racing harness in all of the cars I drive." Sam argued.

"What happens if you get caught? Huh?! What then?!"

"Then I will have to bail myself out or something… bribe the cops if I have too! Dad can help!"

"Sam! You don't get it!" She tossed a frustrated hand up from the wheel and sighed heavily.

"What do I not get!?" Sam looked at her seriously.

"You could get in trouble…" She said quietly

"I know that quite well!" Sam glared at her.

"I don't want you to get hurt is all…" She said suddenly tearfully.

"Nicky…" Sam started calmly, more careful of his tone. "I will be as careful as I can…"

"Alright…" Her head hung slightly.

"Do you need anything? Anything money wise?" He asked.

"No… I don't…"

"Are you hungry?"

"Yes…"

"Then pick a spot, darling." He smiled. "I'll buy you dinner!"

"Alright… fine…"She gave a slight smile.

She soon changed course drove to a Salt Lick BBQ, her favorite place to eat, where the two had a decent dinner. After he paid for the food they headed back to her small apartment where they spent the rest of the night watching assorted display Seth MacFarlane shows before settling down in bed together. Nicky had fallen asleep almost as soon as the two had nestled in, leaving Sam awake for a while to think as he lightly ran his fingers through her hair.

While he never really liked the quiet life, Nicky somehow was the one exception. The two had been together ever since her junior year of high school when Sam was at a local drive in movie theater that still somehow was in operation. He remembered that he was going alone to see the Expendables just for the sake of boredom. As he remembered, he sat quietly in his beat up 1970 Plymouth Roadrunner. It wasn't anything special; it was just some rusted piece of shit that he picked up for a grand off of some farmer. It wasn't the notorious 440 Six pack or the winged version of the car, but rather a stock rust bucket with a faint red tint from whatever paint was remaining.

As the movie began he had spotted some girl sitting in the grass nearby alone. Her hair had been cleanly kept and her skin was covered loosely by a pair of faded jeans and a red tee shirt. He watched her for several minutes as she seemed unable to get comfortable. Sam took his chances as a gentleman and got out of his car to approach the girl. He carefully asked her if she would be more comfortable in his car with him. Despite the awkwardly polite inquiry, the girl accepted and joined him in the front bench seat of the Roadrunner. What started as a simple kind gesture turned soon to intimacy and eventually the girl ended up being more interesting than the action movie. After the movie had finished he drove her home safely. That was six years ago and the rest, as some would say, was history.

He gave a faint smile as he gave her cheek a kiss before settling against her in bed. The two slept soundly and in the morning, Sam woke first to make them both breakfast. With his skilled hands he crafted a feast of dipping eggs and toast. By the time he had finished, Nicky came down stairs and stood at the bottom of the stairs. She gave a yawn as she stretched before rubbing her eyes. Sam smiled; even in her unawaken state she was more beautiful to him than any other woman on the face of the Earth. She grunted slightly at him as some sort of gorgeous beast and then sat down at the table, waiting for him to set their food out and for him to sit.

"How did you sleep, Nicky?" Sam asked as he sat down.

"Pretty good… What about you?" she groaned, still being groggy from waking up.

"I always sleep well with you…"

"Aww, thank you." Nicky blushed lightly as she ate some of her egg. "Really?"

"Of course… I don't think I have ever had a bad night sleeping with you." Sam smiled.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome…"

The two quietly nibbled at their food, leaving a slightly awkward moment for the two.

"You know… Chad stopped by last night." Nicky spoke with a certain kind of annoyance in her voice. Chad was some rich sports douche who had been trying to get into her pants since her freshman year of high school.

"Oh… What did he want?" Sam asked as he became slightly tense.

"The usually scam…" She rolled her eyes. "'Yeah Nicky.'" She began in a mocking voice of something like some surfer guy. "'You should totally, like, hang out with the big kids and come ride with me in my new Corvette that, like, my daddy totally just, like, bought me.' Ugh! He disgusts me!" She sighed heavily.

"Oh that was him? Just before I came in." Sam chuckled, he always enjoyed he mockeries of people.

"Yeah…"

"He didn't try to touch you again did he?" Sam perked up post thought with an angered voice. "If I see him grope you again I'll-" 

"NO! He didn't…" She tried to calm him from that thought path.

"He has before… He shouldn't treat women like that…" Sam sighed.

"If he does I will tell you. Ok?" She sighed with him.

"Alright…" Sam's shoulders lowered slightly.

"What do you want to do today, hun?" Nicky asked as she fumbled with some of the eggs on her plate with her fork as she tried to change the topic.

"Well… I am heading over to dad's house. Normal Monday grilling night…" Sam sighed.

"Well… at least you are spending time with him. Most people don't hang around their parents into their late twenties so much." Nicky smiled.

"Yeah." Sam nibbled on some egg for a few moments. "He tells me he has a new service car or something."

"Oh?" She giggled, knowing that his father was as into cars as Sam was.

"Yup… I remember when he got the Charger when Dodge revived them." Sam chuckled.

"I remember too…" Nicky sighed, calming her laughter. "When you want me to take you over there?" She asked.

"I don't need you to do that, your poor boyfriend is going to have to walk there." He teased mopingly.

"Hunny… I insist." She giggled.

"I would be oh-so-greatful!" He continued to tease.

"Oh stop, you! I will take you. Don't worry…" She ate some of her breakfast. "A little after breakfast. I will take you before I go to work… ok?" She smiled.

"Sure… Now finish up, hun." He nodded towards her plate before taking a large bite of his eggs.

The two finished their breakfast soon and lounged around until Nicky had to get ready for work. Once she was dressed, the two got into her VW and took off towards his father's house. His father lived a good half an hour away, most of which was spent on the recently Salvicon Highway.

The Salvicon was a massive highway system that was been constructed all of the main body of the United States. It was a six lane highway that spanned straight across the continental straights at a specific latitudes. There were three main portions of the highway system: The 'North Line' ran from Massachusetts, over the great lakes around Michigan, through the Dakotas, and then to Seattle, Washington. The "Center Line" ran between Virginia and northern California, going through Kentucky, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Utah, and Nevada in the process. The "South Line" started in Florida and ran along the Gulf of Mexico in a straight line until it ventured straight through Texas before turning slightly to head through New Mexico, Arizona, and eventually to Los Angeles. In between each were junctions that went vertically on the map between the three for each 250 miles longitude.

What made the Salvicon different from any other US bound highway was the fact that it was supposed to be operated much like the Autobahn of Germany. The most apparent feature was that the speed limit was 125 miles per hour with the exception of the furthest right lane which was designated for trucks and slower vehicles that could not handle such speeds. The roads were very well maintained as well, being already resilient to wear and such by being made from the best materials that were currently available. Such as the Schlangen 'self-healing' pavement and other things like doubling as an energy supply to the electrical grid from the heat from the sun. Another feature was that the road itself was kept from any temperature below 40 degrees Fahrenheit to ensure that there was no ice or snow on the road at any time during the year. There was also grooves in the road filled with material that were designed to wick any liquid away from the road to ensure near perfect grip in even the heaviest rain storms.

The system was just being finished in the recent months and the economy was already seemingly taking well to it. The time of getting across the country was drastically reduced by the highway system, helping vacation limitations. The only problem there was there was a problem with people respecting the already generous speed limit that was allowed. Each state was trying to create a way to combat this issue but due to the only recent completion of the highway, the state law enforcement agencies were not quite ready for the amount of speeding infractions that would happen hourly from day to day.

Soon Nicky stopped before his father's driveway. In the driveway was a dark blue 2015 Ford f-250 sitting on top of its lifted suspension. A man in his late mid-40s began to approach them from the side of the truck. The man wore basic blue jeans and a gray long sleeve shirt that the arms had been rolled up to the elbows. A smile appeared under his thick, greying Chevron mustache as he set a dirty rag that he had just finished whipping his hands with on the chrome brush guard of the truck. The man walked up to the passenger's side of her Baja Bug as Sam got out.

"Glad you could make it, Sam!" The man hugged Sam.

"Glad I could make it, dad." Sam smiled and hugged his father back.

"How are you doing, Nicky?" His father asked her as he and Sam parted.

"Oh you know… Surviving and stuff…" She smiled from the driver's seat.

"Well hang in there kiddo."

"You know I will."

"You are not joining us?" His father asked while giving some playful concern.

"No. I have work in a few minutes actually. Sorry." She frowned.

"Darn. That sucks…"

"Its ok, John" Nicky called Sam's father by name as per his request from previous conversations.

"Drive safe" He smiled to her.

Nicky put her car into gear and rolled off down the street after looking over her shoulder to see if it was clear for her. Sam and his father watched Nicky's car disappear down the street as she headed off to work. The two gave a sigh nearly together before looking at each other.

"Sucks she can't join us for dinner…" His father muttered.

"She usually works Mondays, dad…" Sam sighed.

"Oh well… c'mon to the back yard. I already got the meat on the grill." His father waved Sam towards the door of the house.

Sam's father led him to the front door of the house. The door opened up to a walkway that ran separated the house and garage from each other. The walkway had an exit straight ahead for the back yard which the two went through. They exited the doorway Sam was greeted by the seasoned smell of barbeque on his father's grill as he walked onto the porch. His father nodded for Sam to take a seat on one of the few wooden lounge chairs scattered closely on the back deck. He moved a chair next to his father's and watched as his father went over to the grill to get food for the both of them. Sam sat forward and opened beverage cooler that sat between their two chairs. Before his father returned he reached into the cooler and pulled out two hard cider bottles and set one on his father's chair.

"Here you go." his father chuckled as he sat after handing Sam a plate with bbq pork chops and a mass of mashed potatoes that had bits of cheese, bacon, and sour cream infused into it. "I don't give you food for admiration. Muncha munch!"

Sam took a quick bite of the mash potatoes, which had been mixed into a bowl with cheese, bacon, and sour cream before being heated to perfection where the cheese was melted. The perfect mashed-n-loaded baked potato without baking or skin. As stupid simple as it was, it was one the way it was prepared was amazing and bursting with flavor. It was one of the least boring ways to eat potatoes. The pork chop was also cooked just right; thoroughly soaked and cooked through with the seasons of the sauce but tender and juicy even as it only sat on the tongue.

"Dad!" Sam smiled with a bite of mashed potatoes in his mouth. "This are godlike!" Sam praised the food that had barely left his mouth as he swallowed; his mouth still slightly full.

"Thanks Sam." His father chuckled. "Just don't chick to death enjoying my food… it leaves to high of a coincidence." Sam rolled his eyes.

The two ate their share of food. Between each mouthful they would wash it down with the sweetly tart sour apple taste of the hard cider that the two enjoyed greatly. The two hardly said anything to spark conversation as they eased through their meal. The only thing they really did was listen to the sounds of the neighborhood as the evening began to come to a close with the sun beaming through the trees in his father's fenced in back yard. When the two finished their plates they set their plates onto the deck next to their chairs. The sounds of the plates being set down prompted an aged Irish wolfhound to come slowly from the door of the house. The old dog gave Sam's hand a lick before it went about cleaning the plates with its tongue.

"Hey Sparky… how you doin' big guy?" Sam smiled as he reached down and lightly stroked the dog's grey matted fur of its neck.

"There he is…" John smiled.

"I'm surprised he didn't come out sooner with the grill and all…"

"He must have been taking a nap or something… he is getting old and stuff… maybe he had some troubles getting up." John sighed.

"He is fine… He was probably on the couch sleeping like he always is." Sam chuckled.

"I remember when I got that dog" John smiled. "You two were the best of buds." He paused "Shit, you hardly would ever leave each other alone." He said chuckling.

"Yeah…" Sam smiled as he thought back on his memories with the dog. "I'm sure he misses me."

"Both of us do." John gave a sigh.

"Anything been going on with you, dad?" Sam looked at John.

"Actually… quite a bit!" John sat up rather excitedly.

"Oh?"

"The troopers got new additions to their fleet!"

"Hmm… let me guess, something fast… something Salvicon related?" Sam smirked.

"You bet your keister it is. C'mon I'll show you."

John got up from his chair and quickly walked passed Sam, making Sparky jerk slightly on his paws in unrest from his plate cleaning. Sam shook his head as he got up from his chair to follow his father. His dad led him into his garage to excitedly point out a 2016 Dodge Viper SRT sitting in behind the closed bay of the door.

The Viper had been painted up with a very dark green that was barely noticeable as a green shade in the dim light given off of the single strip light about it. On the top was a wide strip of white that ran from the hood all the way back to the graceful tail of the race car; the matching paint job of the Texas State Troopers for all of their vehicles. On the door and side of the car a dark grey badge with a golden outline of Texas was painted under the white letters reading 'Texas Department of Public Safety.' Over the ridge over the rear wheel well was a red, cursive style line that read 'Highway Reaper.' This was one of the brand new Salvicon Interceptor that several people in the racing circuits had mentioned in the recent weeks.

"What you think of her?" John asked excitedly.

"Huh... Fancy." Sam crossed his arms and looked over the vehicle further.

"She is one of 50 in the state now… Depending how well they do we will get another 150 next year."

"Cool… What does she top?" Sam asked, trying to break the ice.

"We tested one out to about 225." He exclaimed exitedly. "Give it the right circumstances I bet they could touch 235."

"Can you even drive that fast, old man?" Sam chuckled.

"Who you calling old, kid?! Remember who taught you how to drive!" John laughed.

"Yeah… I'd say I've done well with what you taught me." Sam admitted stupidly as he kneeled in front of the Viper, looking at the menacing vehicle head on. He realized he shouldn't have said that.

His father stopped his laugh and he became firm. "Sam…"

"What?"

"You know that I don't approve of street racing." His father began to scorn.

"I don't know what you're talking about, dad." Sam attempted to dodge the topic, failing miserably despite the petty attempt.

"Bullshit!" John barked in a raised voice, more angry at the denial than the act itself. "I've bailed you out for it before. I won't do it next time!" His father referred to three previous accounts that Sam had been arrested quite a long time before.

"Dad… It won't happen again…" Sam sighed.

"It better not! I don't know where you began to think it was ok?" John crossed his arms in front of him.

"You taught me to drive… I didn't get it off of you. It was something I picked up myself." Sam looked up with this valid point. His father was the one who taught him the basics on which his skills used for his illegal profession were based.

"I'm serious, Sam. You are doing the time next time."

"Sure…"

"Excuse me?" John's lips tightened together, adding to his already stern look.

"I got it, sir. It won't happen again." Sam stood and looked blankly at his father.

"Good… now c'mon inside" John turned and left Sam in the garage with the Reaper.

Sam stayed still for several moments as he looked back to the Viper to catch the unit number of 42 on the side of the rear quarter panels. A feeling began to churn deep in the pit of his stomach that made his arms feel hollow as he looked over the curves of the racing machine. A thought crossed his dreading mind; the thought that it was part of the beginning of the end. He shook his head quickly and without looking back, he left the garage for the house after his father.

Such a strange thought…


	2. Act 1 Chapter 2: The Mid-Texan Circuit

SGTLEGENDKILLEЯ

Rebache

Act I Chapter II

"The Mid-Texan Circuit"

_A1C2 Track _

_Doperide ~ Saliva (Every Six Seconds)_

D: 11:14 p.m. June 9th, 2016

"Ok hunny… Sleep tight. I'll see you tomorrow." Sam said as he finished a lengthy phone call with Nicky.

Once the call had been dropped, Sam dropped his phone carelessly onto the passenger seat of his car. He gave a soft yawn as he tapped softly on the top of his steering wheel. With his other hand he scratched his slightly hairy face; he needed to shave soon. Even though Nicky liked the week long prickly fuzz on him, he found that it very annoyingly would scrape the skin on his neck more than anything else. With a sigh, Sam looked back down the straight, lengthy stretch of road before him. The only thing that was happening on the road way was the constant sweeping of the street lights that he passed underneath.

He currently was heading to a meet with his racing crew out in some privately owned air field that was occasionally rented out for some off-public-road action. It really was just a gathering of crews from as far as Louisiana, New Mexico, and as far North as Colorado meeting in the center of Texas for mingling, showing off, and some friendly racing for wagering. The local law enforcement were usually skeptical of such events, but they never intervened as long as what happened in the venue stayed in the venue.

A smile grew on his face as, off to the distant east, he could see lights beaming up into the dark sky from the flatlands miles out of the town he was passing through. The closer he got the more awake he became. There was just a certain atmosphere to events like these that kept him alive and adrenalized; he would even go so far to say he didn't ever have to sleep at some of the longer events. There was just so much to do in the grand scheme of things. For him, these were like getting together with your closest group of friends and just pissing an entire night away on movies, food, and belligerently loud jesting.

After several minutes of driving, Sam turned a right onto the final road that lead to the venue's entrance. He approached the entrance just after a Police Cruiser of the town near by rolled easily down the roadway in the opposite direction. He was a bit out of his jurisdiction, however just the usual patrol helped ease the public's paranoia towards the racing event. He turned slowly into the venue's drive and rolled up to the check in gate with his window rolled down. Inside the booth was a Latino lady in her younger 20's with a green colored Mohawk and quite the mixture of tattoos and piercings over her mildly clothed body.

"Hey, Sam!" The girl greeted him from the booth.

"Hey Kia. How have you been?" Sam smiled at her.

"Oh you know… Bored as fuck out here while everyone dicks around in there…" She shrugged.

"Hang in there… When is your shift change?"

"In an hour and a half…"

"Ah…"

"You got your entrance fee?"

"Yup. Here you go." Sam handed her a small bundle of folded of three one hundred dollar bills.

"Thankies!" Kia quickly counted the money and stuffed it into a safe box in the booth.

"Any time, Kia!" Sam chuckled. "See you in a bit?"

"You are going to be with Ali?" She asked, raising one of her drawn on eyebrows.

"Of course." He smiled.

"Welcome to Battlemaster! Now go knock 'em dead, killer!" She blew him a kiss off her dark maroon covered lips.

Sam gave a nod and rolled off through the gate as it opened. He rolled through the lane that ran back towards the majority of the attendees of the event. On either side of the lane was every type of car one would hope to see. There was everything from the notorious tuner crews of Atlanta to the truck crews of the panhandle of Oklahoma. In between the groups of crews were the occasional kiosks for food and water. In the center of the venue, inside of the lone large airplane hangar, was where all of the lights, music, and dancing were happening. Ali's crew spot was near the hangar and so Sam pulled in slowly next to Ali's Camaro and exited the Challenger after letting the rumbling engine shut off.

"There he is! That's my boy!" Ali came over from a group around the crew's cars and shook his hand.

"Calm down you dark skinned bastard…" Sam rolled his eyes and gave Ali a hug.

"Ey… Don't you hate on me 'cause I'm black."

"You know I don't." Sam smiled.

"Yeah… 'Cause your my white brother!" Ali laughed.

Ali Howard was the main assembler of everything the crew did together; he would even be considered by some just to be an 'on-field' manager of some sort. Despite this title given to him by his popularity, he didn't have all that much pull other than telling everyone where stuff was going down and getting the crew into slots. His main perk to the crew was that he had the know-how and the vast web of connections; if there was a race anywhere or someone worth talking too in the area, he knew about it. In races he usually would stick close to Sam as he played the role of a 'Spotter.' This was someone who would tail behind a team mate to block and ensure that there would be no harassment from anybody behind the pair. Ali led Sam over to the rest of the crew. Of the crew was Ali, Jack, Nathan, Nick, Rose, and Sam.

Jack was crew's tough guy. He was usually the one to speak up before anyone else if the crew or any of its members got challenged or bothered. He honestly wasn't physically that intimidating, however he had one hell of a big mouth that he could use quiet well. He wasn't uncommon to take a win for the crew, but he was typically better for blocking off opponents with his yellow wide bodied 2002 Toyota Twin Turbo. In races he was typically what Sam would call a "Wolf." These were typically people who just fill up the empty spaces and harass the other crews. Of the entire crew, he was one of three of these wolves. The second wolf worth mentioning was Nathan.

Nathan was a lean and stringy and thin kid from Corpus Christi area. He was just a tad taller than Sam's height of 6'1. He was mainly the source of entertainment for the group. This was largely due to the fact that he had a higher-than-averagely pitched voice, and that he was nearly always ranting, whining, glorifying, or debating something with the rest of the crew. Even as one of the crew's wolves, he was very aggressive in terms of how he drove. If there was an opening that he could fit beastly red 1969 Dodge Charger R/T, then he would get it there. He didn't win that much, but he was an invaluable asset to the group; even if his mouth never stopped.

The last crew wolf was the new kid, Nick. Of the entire crew, Nick was usually the quietest and most composed. He was always known as that weird guy who would talk about video games or computers while everyone in the room around him would be talking cars. He was, along with Jack, one of the few people who would totally tolerate Nathan's constant talking. He was quite the racer, being better than Jack and Nathan in the grand scheme of things. This was probably mainly due to how well tuned his dark blue 2014 Hyundai Genesis Coupe was.

The one outlier, and non-official participant, of the crew was Rose, or Rosie to her preference. She was the typical punkish type of girl; she wore heavy makeup and dyed her hair black to compliment her black studded leather clothing. She had several piercings and tattoos along her thin figure. What she didn't make up for with curves she made up with style and testosterone that would put any guy to shame. She drove a blackened 1935 Ford Model A Hot rod. The Model A had an enclosed cabin and an open engine compartment with the short exhaust pipes running to the side and a large open mouthed air intake on top of the engine block. While her vehicle choice was unorthodox, it fit her personality well and it was defiantly something you didn't want to mess with off the start on a straight line run. She wasn't actually a member of the crew, but she was nearly always with them.

Sam was not surprised to find that both Jack and Nick were both being bothered by whatever Nathan was ranting about.

"I am telling you, Nick! Marathon is the best game ever!" Nathan exclaimed.

"Nathan… shut up…" Nick groaned.

"But Marathon guy is the best though!" Nathan argued.

"I'm more partial to the DOOM Guy" Nick tried to tread lightly without losing his sense of pride.

"That is what you always say. Marathon guy is much better!" Nathan mindlessly retorted

"Dude!" Jack sighed. "Bungie has been making that game for 22 years! They did it once in the 90s, then rebooted it with Microsoft in the 00's, and now they are making them again with updated graphics and calling them Marathon Anniversary!" Jack whined loudly. "Ten years from now, our kids will be playing another reboot of Marathon! Talk about cash cow…" Jack groaned.

"But it is a great game. What are they supposed to do?" Nathan challenged.

"Maybe make another story with some other space marine… I don't know… Maybe throw in some parasite shit from The Thing movie, a several decade alien war, some giant planet sized rings of annihilation, and put him in green power armor! There is a ton to add to the 'space marine' trope" Nick proposed.

"Like Doom guy?" Jack chuckled.

"Oh my god… Doom guy sucks!" Nathan rolled his eyes.

"Are you kidding me?" Jack stood firm. "Doom guy went into hell and back twice without a shred of emotion of hesitation! Come on dude!"

"Shush! No one cares about a series that hasn't been expanded for over 10 years." Nathan sighed. "And Nick… That sounds cool! What would you call it?"

"Uhh… how about something with an H… there isn't too many games with H's" Nick began to answer after a pause.

"Ok, pixel gallery, shut up!" Sam diverted the conversation as he finally joined their group.

"Hey, look who is here. What's up, man?" Jack broke from Nathan's arguing and shook hands with Sam.

"Oh you know. Bored… Looking for some action." Sam smiled.

"Well shit, you came to the right place, bro!" Ali chuckled from behind Sam.

"I bet…" Sam sighed. "Anything going on tonight so far?"

"Nope… not much at all…" Nick sighed.

"It's still early on though, guys. Just wait." Ali walked passed Sam.

"Your late, Sam." Rosie piped in playfully from behind Nick.

"I am sorry for having a life, Rosie." Sam sighed. "We can't all just hide in a garage with cars all day."

"You really could… You choose not to." She spat with a smile.

"I will when you stop being a butch!" Sam chuckled.

"Oh shit! Shots fired!" Jack laughed.

"Oh fuck you, Sam! You know you can't handle this." Rosie rolled her eyes.

"I wouldn't _want_ to handle 'that'" Sam crossed his arms and shook his head.

Rosie just waved him off with a roll of her eyes.

"Alright, guys… Let's calm down now." Ali waved the two down as a greenish late 00's Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X rolled to a stop near the crew; its engines gave slight hissing whines that were driven by turbo kits.

The driver got out of their Lancer and looked around at the cars of Ali's crew. He wore a smug face as they looked over the group's hoods and they seemed to scoff quietly. The one took a moment to whisper something to the other before they spoke.

"So we have two turners, an old time classic muscle car, a much older time Hot rod, a modern muscle car… and…" He paused as he looks at Sam's car. "A stock Challenger…" He seemed to speak in a higher-than-thou manner.

Jack suddenly burst out laughing. "You think the Challenger is stock!?"

"Well it sure as hell isn't a Hell Cat…"

"So?" Jack cocked his head, taking a step forward in front of Sam. Jack was always one to get Sam's back.

"I have, as some say, thrown those kitties through the ringers several times…" He crossed his arm as he chuckled. "Where is the driver?"

"Here…" Sam stepped forward.

"Ah…"

"You shouldn't really run your mouth, kid… You will get hurt."

"Oh? With your little stock machine?"

"It's not stock, bro!" Ali came, just as Jack did, to the defense of Sam. This guy clearly wasn't from the area.

"Hmm… then what is it running?" the Lancer driver asked.

"It's a 6.4 big block V8 that puts out about 660 horsepower…"

"Anything else?" he cocked his eye brow.

"Do you really need to know anything else?"

"Perhaps…" He paused. "Rear wheel drive?"

"Of course."

"What is your zero to 60?"

"About 3.8 seconds on a good day."

"Hmm…"

"Look dude, we don't want any trouble…" Ali cut in casually.

"No… it's alright, Ali." Sam looked to Ali from the driver and back. "Are you looking for a race, kid?"

"I don't know if your jalopy could handle my Evo." The driver sneered.

"Kid… get that rice rocket out of here! It don't have shit on that Challenger." Rosie spoke up as she leaned on her hot rod.

"I wasn't talking about you and your granny mobile." The driver spat back at her.

"Why don't you put your money where your mouth is?" Sam crossed his arms in slight annoyance. "How does 10 thousand sound for a mile run?"

"No. I don't race for anything under 20 in my ride."

"Then fuck it. 30 thousand to the winner; I'll back it." Ali cut in once again.

"You'll bet 30 grand on a dodge Challenger? You're joking…" The driver scoffed.

"I wouldn't bet it on your car either, bud. Now let's go!" Sam stepped up confidently.

The driver grumbled. "Fine… But don't whine when my Evo kicks your boat to the curb!" The driver sneered before he turned back to his car.

"Sam… I'll go set this up quickly. Get over there and get ready." Ali told him as the Lancer driver turned his car on and roared off for the empty airstrip.

Sam simply nodded back as he went to his car.

"Whoo! First race of the night!" Jack exclaimed. "This is going to be good!"

"Well let's get over there!" Nathan shouted as he slid into his Charger.

Sam got into his car and started it; the engine gave a mighty roar as it came back to life. Nathan and Ali rolled out of their spot first and lead the rest to the north end of the airstrip where there was already a station set up for just the occasion. Ali quickly got out and talked with the people at the station who were to set the set one mile drag race. Within a minute, as they were eager to get the night started, the station's staff quickly set up everything and had the Challenger and the Lancer line up. They sat with their engines idling as a staff runner sped down the airstrip to the mile point to set up a flare to mark the finish.

Even in the short notice of time, the word had gotten out and quite the amount of people had made their way over to watch along the strip. The lights all came on to the starting point and the speakers began to blast Five Finger Death Punch as the staff prepared to start the race. The drivers were instructed to approach and to prepare for the line. The overly confident Lancer rolled forward first and came to an even stop even with the line. Sam instead, in order to heat the rubber of his back tires further, held the brake and stamped the gas pedal to the floor in first gear. The Challenger roared out loudly as the rear tires screamed as they were run against the static pavement. The sound of its roots type supercharger rang out high pitched just over the bellowing exhaust note. Sam slowly let off the brake and lurched forward several feet until he eased off the gas in order to stop at the line.

With the cars set and prepped, the light tree that one of the staff had put just in front of the lined up pair started up with the top series of preliminary lights. Sam clicked on his traction control, something he rarely did as he preferred the full operative control over his vehicle, and began to apply the gas pedal as he held the break. The lights of the tree began to fall down to green, with each light, the Challenger gave a menacing growl that completely over shadowed the turbo driven whine of the Lancer; the muscle car tilted slightly as the car torqued against the brakes.

The tree lit up green and Sam immediately got the jump in an instant as he slid his foot off of the pedal swiftly. His reaction time was unparalleled by most and this time was no different; he was the first off the line. Despite his reaction time, the Lancer had grip over the Challenger as it was an all-wheel drive vehicle, and so the Lancer quickly gained ground on the Challenger and stuck with it. The Lancer pulled ahead by several bounds before Sam's traction control kicked in and forced the wheels to finally get the peak amount of traction they could handle. With a full solid grip on the pavement, the heated tires surged the Challenger forward after the Lancer.

The Challenger quickly began to gain ground on the Lancer. As the supercharged engine wailed loudly, Sam power shifted through the gear with vicious precision. Even against the automatic Lancer, Sam's split second shifts proved dominate as the Challenger rumbled loudly passed the opponent. Several moments later, Sam crossed the finish line in between the two red flares that the staff had laid down by several seconds before the Lancer did taking a win from the cocky driver.

Sam turned around and sped back for the starting point to rejoin the crew. He pulled off to the side and left the Challenger idling as he got out of his car. He was instantly greeted with quite the amount of praise and 'good jobs!' After the very short celebration, they waited but a moment for the Lancer driver to come back to pay for his loss. It wasn't very long off before the Lancer swiftly screeched to a halt before the group. The driver quickly got out and marched out to them, clearly upset.

"You cheat!" he accused of Sam.

"Woah, woah, woah! Bro?! How did he cheat?" Ali jumped up to Sam's aid.

"He… Uh…" The driver locked up without a legitimate reason.

"I told you it wasn't stock, dude." Sam grinned "Now pay up." Sam held out his hand.

The driver grumbled and went back to his car. He pulled out a stack of money from the glove box and shuffled out a large sum of money. With the money in hand he gave it to Ali. Ali gave a quick count of it as Sam just stood there with a smirk on his face at the driver.

"Thank you!" Ali smiled as he split the money with Sam before stuffing his half into his jacket pocket.

"Let's see how long that smirk lasts on the streets! Cmon!" The driver eagerly challenged Sam onto the streets for illegal racing.

"Nope… You lost, kid. Deal with it." Sam went and turned from the driver.

"You fucking pussy!"

"I suggest you not speak like that to one of the best drivers of this local circuit." A smooth talking voice spoke out suddenly.

"Who the fuck do you think you are?!" The driver asked.

Sam turned back to see a black suited man walking up to the group. As he reached the Lancer driver, he pulled a roll of cash out of his inner suit and handed it to him. "Leave. Mr. Challenger and I have some business to discuss."

The Lancer driver looked down stunned at the cash he was just given. Despite the second thoughts he might have, he swallowed them and quickly entered his car and sped off from them. The sharp dressed man waved Ali and the crew away to talk privately to Sam, and so they begrudgingly gave them some distance.

"Samuel…" The man started.

"Don't call me that." Sam spat quickly with a bit of aggression..

"…Sam… Apologies."

"OK… Now what do you want? Who are you?"

"My name is Mr. Black and I apologize for the assumption." He paused to lick his lips. Sam noticed that he had a black metallic collar around the base of his neck that was tucked neatly under his collar. This caught Sam's eye for whatever reason. "My employer, Mr. Czar as he prefers to be addressed as, is the holder of some very built up and 'dusty' money he is sitting on, if you will."

"Dusty?" Sam kind of cut him off at the end of his sentence.

"Yes. Dusty; old money. That sort of thing."

"Ah…"

"Anyway… Sam, Mr. Czar has been very interested in you and your performance in the circuit as of late. He is considering you for a future endeavor that could result in you having a substantial slice of this money."

"Huh…" Sam looked down, thinking.

"Are you interested in this?" The man asked outright.

"Yeah. But how will I know what to do when your being this cryptic?" Sam asked with a bit of uncertainty

"Mr. Czar has your number already… He will have me contact you personally… any more than that I cannot say." With that he turned and began to walk away.

"Uh…hey!" Sam called to him, confused.

"It was nice making your acquaintance, Sam! Have a profitable night!" He left Sam in confusion.

"What the fuck…" Sam sighed as he rubbed the back of his head as he tried to figure out what the hell had just happened.


	3. Act 1 Chapter 3: Midtown Madness

SGTLEGENDKILLEЯ

Rebache

Act I Chapter III

"Midtown Madness"

_A1C3 Track _

_Beg ~ Saliva (Every Six Seconds)_

D: 3:12 p.m. June 15th, 2016

Sam sighed as he dug his hands into the pockets of his jeans. His steps were lively and brisk as he was late for a commitment that he himself set. Nicky was waiting for him to pick her up from work at three in the afternoon and he was now just a lick over 10 minutes late for that. Deep down he knew she wouldn't care all that much, however due to his gentlemanly intuition, he felt disappointed in himself that he had let her down as he picked her up every Wednesday at the same time.. It wasn't even really his fault in fact, as there was some idiot who wanted to have a several minute conversation with the only cashier at the gas station he stopped at and traffic was fairly heavy and, of course, slow for whatever reason. Maybe it was the time of the year where there were tourists from out of state sightseeing and blocked up the roads.

Sam sighed once again as he hit the lock button on his key dongle. His Challenger chirped loudly from the parking space nearby and he, with a sort of finesse, spun the key ring around his index finger before catching it in his palm and shoving into his right pocket. He continued on walking the sideway towards the GameStop. The awning of the stores in the plaza provided some shade of the sun that bear down onto the sandy surface of Texas. It wasn't that bad compared to any other day of the month, you just got out of the sun as much as you could.

He had managed to clean house in all of the crew's class the last weekend at the Battlemaster venue. He had spent the entire weekend gathering up several hundreds of thousands of dollars. Most of it was put and split towards the crew entirely as it always was; he just got the largest cut of all. He had put most of that into a 'safe vault' he had and a bit towards vehicle maintenance. He had quite a bit built up of course, however he was saving up to buy himself a nice workspace and garage lot for himself and whatever vehicles he wanted to procure or work on. He also wanted to get a house that he could share with Nicky; the more honest goal of saving the money.

There was quite a few cars in the parking lot that Sam could see on his short walk to the game store. He was damn near certain that a lot of them was here for the little mini-JCPennies and the book store that rested on the opposite end of the plaza from the GameStop. There was nothing really to look at in terms of motor vehicles, with the exception of one that came into his view as he got just a few yards from the GameStop: A certain yellow colored Chevrolet Corvette Z06 that sat in a parking spaces from the store between two sedans. Sam's eye twitched.

Inside the store, Nicky was just doing some basic trivial work that she could leave at any moment whenever Sam showed up. This mainly was the boring task of checking all of the stock to see if it was all perfectly alphabetized. It was something she did to keep herself busy throughout the day. It was done quite a bit on her shift due to children who never could handle the urge to essentially throw games around. Now was a good time to do it anyway as there was only one customer in the store. She moved an Xbox One game and ended up accidentally dropping a copy of the new Marathon game onto the floor from the shelf.

"Shit…" She cursed out under her breath before bending over to pick it up.

"Oh, hello sweet pea!" A voice spoke out behind her just before she felt someone grab her ass through her jeans.

"Hey!" She yelped and stood up, leaving the game on the floor. She turned to see Chad standing there with a large smile across his face.

"Sorry, babe… Did I scare you?" He soothed to her. "Let me help you with that" Chad grabbed her by the sides and tried to move in for a kiss.

Nicky promptly graced his cheek with an open hand smack. "No!" She yelled at him, causing Pete too come from behind the counter. "Chad! What the fuck!?"

"It's nothing much, Nicky. I know you want me…" Chad spoke with a snakelike tongue as he stepped back rubbing his face.

"'ey!" Pete called out "You need to leave, sir!"

"Shut the fuck up, featherhead!" Chad shouted back at Pete. "I am not here for you… I'm here for this diva right here." He looked back to Nicky in quite the crazy, off-putting manner.

"I will not stand here and let you act like this in my store. Get out!" Pete shouted as he pulled a wooden baseball bat from behind the counter and threatened Chad with it.

"What are you going to do, bush nigger? Hit me?" Chad hissed in response. "Now where was I?" He looked back to Nicky.

Sam, seeing the entire scenario happen through the glass windows as he was about to enter the store, came in and quickly approached Chad. With a blow driven by momentum, Sam drove his right fist into Chad's cheek. Chad recoiled from the punch and stumbled several steps away from Nicky. This was quite a feat as Chad was quite the large and stocky type, being the football type. The only way that it had worked was that Sam had gotten the jump on him. Chad was well enough to return a swing at Sam. Sam, being quicker, ducked under Chad's disoriented and frantic swing. Sam used the open spot to put another jab into Chad's cheek before having to dodge another swing.

This went on for a few quick swings back in forth before Chad got a grip on Sam's neck. Sam struggled violently with the enraged jock's grip as he felt he couldn't breathe from the hold. Something seemed majorly wrong with Chad; it was either something about his face or his eyes, but Sam could see it. Chad had always been extremely compulsive but this was overkill even for him. His pupils were nearly unnaturally constricted and his face was twitching just a bit more than her normally did when he was angry. A soft red light drew Sam's attention to something around the base of Chad's neck. It was the same type of metallic collar that Mr. Black had, he barely noticed it as it was, and much like Mr. Black's, tucked and hidden under the collar of Chad's plaid shirt. If the light on the collar would have not blinked Sam might have not noticed it; it blinked once again after a few seconds.

Chad then switched motives suddenly and shoved Sam forcefully into a rack of PlayStation 4 games. Sam tripped and fell to the floor with the rack of games as they scattered all over the floor. He looked up to see Chad coming over to continue to fight. The jock was stopped as Pete came up behind him and stuck him in the back with the wooden bat. Chad doubled over to the floor and writhed in pain. Pete quickly helped Sam up and told Nicky to call the cops.

"I told you to leave!" Pete yelled at Chad.

"You wait till my father hears about this shit!" Chad growled from the floor.

"Get the fuck out of here, dick head." Sam added loudly as he got up..

"Or what? The cops don't scare me!" Chad stood firmly despite his blow to his back.

Sam took the bat from Pete. "Get the fuck out of here, Chad!"

"Whatever, pussy."

Sam readied the bat. "How about you chose: Your face or your car?"

Chad shifted. "You're not touching that car!" Sam hit the pride mark.

"So your face?"

"She is out of your league, kid!" Chad stammered.

"I could the same to you about your car." Sam smiled.

"You wouldn't"

"I would…" Chad seemed to reevaluate the situation.

"Fuck this!" Chad turned and bolted out of the store.

Sam grimaced and began his way out of the store. Nicky stopped him as she grabbed his arm.

"What are you doing?!" She demanded.

"I'm going to keep to my word and finish this." He answered furiously and took his arm from her grip.

"God damn it, Sam! Why?!"

"Because he won't quit until _something_ happens to him."

Nicky sighed, knowing he was probably right. "Be careful."

"Of course!" Sam shouted back as he darted out of the store in pursuit of Chad.

Sam quickly found that Chad had just started his Corvette and had just began to whip out of his parking spot. Chad accelerated quickly for the exit of the plaza from where he was parked. Sam, seeing he was making a break for it, quickly sprint to his Challenger. He slid into the driver seat and quickly turned the key in the ignition as he snapped his seatbelts across his chest. He shifted into first and stomped the gas pedal to the floor.

The rear wheels of the Challenger gave a loud scream of rubber fighting for traction. The car lurched forward, springing from his parking spot in the center of the lot. He rapidly turned the front wheels to the right to spin the car to power slide a full 180 from the parking spot onto the lane towards the lot exit. He accelerated for the exit in time to see Chad quickly roar off down the road turning left out of the parking lot.

Sam hardly slowed for the turn across the roadway, completely blasting past the stop sign as he send the Challenger into another screeching power slide to the right side of the road. With the heading set for the Corvette that was quickly shrinking down the road before him, he power shifted into second gear and accelerated viciously. After a few moments of weaving and shifting lanes around law abiding traffic, Sam was soon on top of the Corvette. He slowed up right behind the Corvette and stuck there like glue, giving off one hell of a menacing offensive between his weaving and the wailing sound of his car's supercharger.

It took only a few seconds of this for Chad to realize that Sam wasn't here to play. His Corvette spat out a sudden roar as it rocketed off from Sam's speed. Sam was quick to accelerate with him and did his best to match the Corvette's flank. The Corvette was stronger off than the Challenger, which was apparent as Chad began to gain some ground on Sam as the two belted down the road. They whizzed past civilian vehicles who blared their horns in protest.

Despite his gained ground, Chad seem to decide that the best way to shake Sam off was to change routes. Sam stayed close on him as he swiftly shifted directions by turning right onto a side road through a residential area. Chad seemed to be shaky on how the Corvette liked to turn, and thus gained no yardage from the Challenger. Sam weaved around a minivan turning out of a driveway about halfway down the road. As Chad took a left turn in the residential area, Sam's police scanner buzzed off calling officers to response to a pair of street racers in the two's location.

Sam gritted his teeth as he tightened the grip on his shifter as he shifted gears. The Corvette roared down the road frantically with the Challenger hot on its tail. As Sam could, he gave the Corvette a slight nudge in the back bumper; nothing hard enough for anyone to lose control, but enough to make his point. He didn't care about the damage to his car. He had the money to replace the car several times over. With the bump from the Challenger, the Corvette's movements and actions began to slip into dangerous levels of desperation.

The chase lead back onto a main road. The two cars slid violently as they danced in the two lanes around multiple cars and trucks as they sped loudly down the road. At this point Sam was gone; in a normal state he never would dream of this. The situation with Chad had unfortunately been ongoing for years and this was now the breaking point. His entire honed and perfected focus was on one precise thing: wrecking that Corvette. Through desperately taken measures, Chad kept his speed up to test Sam, and with his perfectly honed skills, Sam kept up with little difficulty.

With any given continuation of the chase, the police scanner buzzed off that there was a Highway Reaper on the chase for the two. Sam began to feel the biting teeth of his nerves as red flags began to popup in his head. He may have slightly been clouded with anger to add to his current compulsive actions, but this was too much. This was too much for even Chad.

At this time, the Corvette began to turn to the right onto another main road. Chad cut the corner too quick and ended up bouncing the front tires over the curb of the inside of the turn. This caused him to snap to fix to the car as the rear end of the car began to buckle and slide from the jarring of the curb. The Corvette was forced into an uncontrollable drift that sent Chad to the other side of the road into the oncoming lane. The car slammed sideways into a coach bus that was stopped for a red light on the other side of the road. A nonlethal collision that surely would cripple the Corvette.

Sam looked back down the road as he finished turning the corner that Chad had failed to clear properly. With Chad taken care of, Sam barreled on down the road to find the nearest back road he could slip onto. At this point he had seen no police cruisers of any sorts on the roads as he eased around traffic at a more calm speed than before. This was true until up ahead a Police interceptor speedily turned the corner and made its way on the opposite side of the road from Sam. The vehicle was a Dodge Viper, specifically: The number 42 Highway Reaper.

"Fuck…" Sam groaned out as the highway reaper began to slow down at the sight of the Challenger.

Sam's grip tightened again on the steering wheel as he gritted his teeth. He quickly tried to decide if he would run or just give up. It could be possible to get away if he could make it too some back roads or alleys to dart around in without it being on his ass. Despite his frantic decision making, the Viper accelerated back towards Chad's crash, speeding up as if it had completely ignored him. The confused Sam; his father totally had seen him.

Shaking this off, Sam quickly made his way out of dodge and got to a secure location where he normally would go for a cool down period from the police. The radio chattered with the calls of the chase and crash. A yellow and black Corvette and unknown gray muscle car; the Corvette had crashed and the driver was being taken to the hospital for a broken arm. The gray car had been lost. Now Sam just sat under the concealment of a darkly shadowed bridge over a small aqueduct.

Suddenly, his phone began to vibrate on the passenger seat as it began to ring; it was his father.

Sam sighed heavily and answered the phone. "Hello?" Sam said as he put the phone to his ear.

"Is everything alright?" His father asked over the phone. His voice quavered slightly, tainted with emotion a sense of confliction.

"What do you mean?" Sam tried to play it off.

"Sam… I know it was you… I saw you."

"Yeah…"

"What is going on?" His father asked firmly.

Sam sighed. "Chad showed up at Nicky's workplace and was touching her and stuff…" he explained poorly.

"Oh… of course." His father sighed. "I never liked that kid…" he said with another sigh. "How long has this been going on, again?"

"Since her freshman year…"

His father once again sighed. "I did the same for your mother a few months after we got married…" he admitted.

"You're not upset with me, are you?" Sam questioned at the surprisingly forgiving nature of the conversation.

"No I am not. Lay low, Sam. I covered for you now but I have to go. Sorry." His father ended the call.

Sam dropped the phone back into the seat and rubbed his eyes. How he had acted was irrational and he knew it. He was now thinking that he literally might have just screwed himself with this; over a single guy touching his woman. No matter what he thought, what happened had happened and nothing he could do would fix that.

His phone began to ring again, immediately shifting his thoughts. With a sigh he quickly picked and looked to see that the screen of his Moto X read that this call was from a 'Private Number.' He raised his eyebrow slightly before he swiped his finger to the left of the screen to answer it.

"Hello?" Sam answered the phone softly.

"Mr. Kampten?" A female voice spoke sternly through the earpiece.

"Uhh… yeah?"

"This call is being made on behalf of Mr. Czar, whose associate contacted you a few nights ago at a circuit gathering about."

"Oh! Mr. Black?"

"Correct…"

"Sorry… I thought he was dickin' me around…"

The lady cleared her throat at the sudden vulgarity. "Mr. Czar has a proposition for you. He wishes that you would join a high stake event that he has put together. There is a driver slot available and he requests that you fill it."

Sam paused for a moment. "Sweetheart, I am going to need more details than that…"

"Of course! A car will be provided for you via delivery with a simple text to this number in your call registry. We will deliver the vehicle to wherever you are located…" she explained.

"Ok… you're holding back." Sam chuckled. "What kind of car."

"A 2006 Ford GT capable of 240 miles per hour. There are eight racers in total. Cash price is one million for first place; winner takes it all."

"A… a million?!" Sam shifted in his seat as he swallowed.

"Correct… Mr. Czar hopes that you will comply with hast." She gave a little tiny giggle at the end for whatever reason.

"Well fuck…" Sam gulped again. "Hold on a second."

"Of course!"

Sam looked around to calm his growing paranoia from the call.

"Ok… I'll do it…" Sam sighed out slowly.

"Mr. Czar will be very pleased at your compliance. Have a nice day, Mr. Kampten." The line went dead

Sam gave a long exhale as he lowered his phone to his lap. He rolled his tongue slowly is his mouth looking down between his legs at his pedals. After a moment of thought, he raised his phone in his hands again to dial Ali Howard's number.

"Ey' Yo?" he answered.

"Ali! Hey man. What's sliding?"

"Eh… Not much, dude. Just chillin' with some down time playing Marathon in The Block. Why?" He asked.

"I need a place to crash for a few days…" 

"Everything alright, Sammy?"

"Well… I don't really want to talk about it… I'm not sure about it yet." Sam sighed.

"Huh… this is so intrestin'" Ali chuckled full of skepticism.

"Ok… All you need to know is that something big is happening."

"Fine, fine. Get your ass over here, bro."

"Thanks Ali."

"Yup." 

Sam hung up the phone and turned on his car before he slowly crept from the shadow of the bridge. He rolled out of the aqueduct and casually headed for Ali's safe house.


	4. Act 1 Chapter 4: The Salvicon

SGTLEGENDKILLEЯ

Rebache

Act I Chapter IV

"The Salvicon"

_A1C4 Track _

_Superstar ~ Saliva (Every Six Seconds)_

D: 4:43 p.m. June 17th, 2016

"I am telling you, Jack!" Nathan argued with a whine in the middle of Ali's living room. "If I had the money I would totally have a Daytona!" 

"Nathan! Shut the fuck up, dude!" Jack sighed in protest. "I will make up a nose point for your Charger and then I will weld it on!"

"It wouldn't be the same."

"It would be cheaper!"

"Bah! It wouldn't be the same though!" Nathan argued for the sake of arguing.

"'ey! Maybe if you quit wastin' your money on women and video games you might be able to afford one…" Ali cut in smartly from the couch that he sat comfortably with Xbox One controller in hand.

"You shush!" Nathan snapped back.

"Nathan… You never tell a man what to do in his own home." Sam chuckled as he got a water from the fridge in the kitchen that hid behind a large bar table from the living room.

Nathan huffed and left it alone by he exited the room. Jack face palmed as he chuckled loudly in unison with Ali. Sam just rolled his eyes as he poured the clear contents of the bottle into a large glass over several ice cubes. These antics were often and normal behavior for the group. Nathan usually had something that he had already brought up thousands of times to debate, and Jack and Nick would tag team as they would cast the debate completely down. As of now it was only the four guys in The Block for now, which easily enough to make it so there was never a dull moment.

The Block, as it was commonly referred to due to its bland and inconspicuous exterior design, was a large building that consisted of a living space that would rival a several room large penthouse and a large, fleet worthy showroom garage. This facility was built by Ali as his main residence and base of operation. Out of all of them, Ali had been at this racing practice for several years and had invested quite a bit of money into the facility. The couches and furniture were all made of dark hardwoods and white leather; the carpet was also white while the walls and ceiling were painted a slightly reddish grey color. It wasn't that easy on the eyes at first, but it was quite homely. To add insult to injury: even the garage floor was polished and done up to resemble majestic white marble.

Sam usually would come and stay here at Ali's place on occasion when things got a bit heated on the law enforcement side of things. It was secure here as the Block was located in the quiet several minutes away from the nearest town. It was a private lot that was surrounded by fence and such. Due to the layout of the property, the normal passerby on the roadway would probably assume it to be some sort of private airstrip and hangar and so it would be left alone. Sam had been here only two days and it seemed that the police had given up looking for his car. This might have had something to do with his father possibly covering something up. He might have told them that the Challenger had Colorado plates and that the car was heading out of state or something.

Once he had arrived here, he had sent a respond message to Mr. Czar's contact with an address to drop the car at. With no other details to follow through with, Sam just was sitting tight until the vehicle was delivered. The only thing he had heard in return was that the car was on its way and would be there in 48 hours after me sent his message.

With a sigh, he sat next to Ali. At this point, Jack had left the room to follow Nathan.

"What's up, kid?"

"Nothing… Just tired…"

"Ah…" Ali spoke without looking from the screen.

"Any word on the next Horizon festival?"

"No… not yet… It's coming in late this year I think… I've heard rumors they it is going to be in Australia." Ali speculated.

"Sounds fun…"

"Yeah." Ali paused to concentrate on killing something in Marathon. "How long you been with me? 2013?" He asked suddenly.

"Something like that… We met at the 2012 Horizon in Colorado."

"Yeah, that is right. We raced a bit didn't we?" Ali chuckled.

"Yeah… in the preliminary rounds we did. Back when my Challenger didn't have the balls it have now."

"True… true…"

"We need to go to the next one…"

"Fuck yeah we do! Like… all of us this time."

"I didn't make any of them since Colorado…" Sam sighed. The reason he hadn't made them was distance traveling and planning. In 2013, Horizon was placed down near Rio; in 2014, it was northern Italy and southern Spain; then the last one in 2015 was in the center of New York State. He could have made New York but his car was in need of a new transmission and was rendered useless.

The two sat in silence for a moment.

"That is ok, Bro. You'll make this year. I'm sure I'll be able to take your money again!" Ali laughed loudly.

"Yeah… sure…" Sam smiled as he sipped his water. "Hey? You remember Captain No Face?"

"Fuck yeah! That dude won the festival too! No one thought he would at first…" Ali admired.

"What ever happened to him?"

Ali was about to answer when a buzzer sounded off in the living space. He paused his game and quickly checked his tablet. "That truck is here…" Ali said as he opened the gates to the Block remotely. "Cmon…" Ali got up from the couch.

Ali and Sam left the living space for the garage section of the building. Once there, Ali opened the large bay door just as the large truck pulled up before it would reverse into the open bay. The car on the back of the single cab truck was covered and protected from sight with a large, heavy duty black tarp that hid the form of the vehicle well. After the truck had backed in, the driver and a helper got out to very quickly unload the car from the ramp without a word. The car had barely been off the trailer for five seconds before the driver and the helper began to leave. With the shake of his head, Ali just closed the bay door as the business was done.

Nathan and Jack, who were in the garage going over some things on one of Ali's cars, came over to find out what car lie underneath the cover. Sam, knowing what it was, took the honor of removing the tarp. The cloth came off with ease to reveal a light blue Ford GT; a pair of white racing stripes ran from front to rear bumper underneath a spoiler wing that easily had six inches of clearance from the rear of the car.

"Why didn't they just give you the GT40? That wedge is better than the new ones!" Nathan grumbled out with distaste.

"Nathan… Holy fuck! You are a hard core purist!" Jack countered Nathan's negativity only for Nathan to stick his tongue out to spite him.

Ali gave a quick whistle in admiration as Sam went around the supercar to get a feel of the exterior. After a few slow rounds about the car, Sam opened the door of the vehicle and slipped into the driver seat. Inside, the black leather was as it was originally designed with the exception of a LCD display that had been custom fitted to the dash.

The key seemed to be already sitting in the ignition and so he turned it; the engine gave a series of click before barking out a satisfying roar. As the car eased down to an idle, the LCD screen illuminated with a symbol or brand of sorts; the gleaming geometric lines of a triangle with little circles perfectly around each corner and a fat triangular arrow pointing down to the base of the main triangle. The symbol faded as a diagram of the car appeared with several stats of what the GT held. Among these stats was what the car would put out. This was a quite hefty 1000 horses that would propel the vehicle from zero to 60 in a time of an estimated 2.7 second up to a potential top speed of 240 miles per hour. The stats and car diagram minimized from screen to reveal a GPS with a route plotted out for the starting line of the race. A count down timer clocked that there was only 12 hours until the race started; meaning that the race was to start at five A.M. the next day.

"Well shit…" Sam stuttered.

"What?" Ali popped his head in the still open door.

"This is serious, isn't it?"

"No shit, bro. You don't just slide a car like this to someone unless it is." 

"Get in." Sam smirked suddenly.

"What? Why?!"

"I'll show you..."

Ali got in quickly and the two found themselves only minutes later sliding around Ali's little test track behind the Brick. The GT burned rubber with each swerving turn as Sam got a feel for it; Ali was left whooping and yelling loudly in joy as Sam threw the GT around the small track several times.

The car was an absolute blast to drive. It was probably the most powerful car Sam had ever driven before to date. The fact that it was literally a factory built track car helped the way the car performed even without the massive upgrades and modification. Who ever built the car had put quite the impressive traction control system into the supercar; it would only squeal tires for a brief moment before the system kicked on to jolt the rolling car forward with rocketing acceleration. The vehicle had also been tightly tuned for quite the cornering ability. It would do very nicely for the race.

Once Sam had a feel for the car he drove back into Ali's garage and parked it. Ali helped him fill up the gas tank and check the fluids before he sat next to Sam on the couch in Ali's living room. Jack and Nathan had left several minutes prior to them putting the car up for the evening and so the place was peaceful enough from Nathan's constant debating with Jack. Sam sat thinking in silence with an open Heineken in his hand.

"You ok, kid?" Ali asked him as he looked up from his phone.

"I don't know…" Sam responded before taking a sip from his beer.

"Are you nervous? Scared?"

"Kinda…" Sam sighed.

"Don't be, man. It's alright."

"Dude… it is a million fucking dollars! How can I be calm?!"

"You remember what I've told you hundreds of times before: Race like it is your last race."

Sam sighed slowly. "Your right."

With that, the two resumed the silence that had lost his hold on the living room temporarily. The two stayed quite for the rest of the evening; the only noise they made was when they played some video games together on Ali's Xbox One. Since Sam had to be at the race with the car at five am, he tried to take a few sessions of somewhat unsuccessful sessions of sleep. In the early morning, he got up and got himself some coffee before throwing his leather jacket on as he walked out to the car. He opened the garage door and left in the Ford GT for the plotted point on the GPS.

Sam arrived at the location to find a pack of seven supercars waiting on a small rest stop used for emergencies off the side of the Salvicon. Sam pulled off to the rear of the line and got out of the car. As he exited the vehicle, all of the other drivers who had been waiting next to their cars. He seemed immediately out of place in comparison as the rest of the drivers seemed to be wearing either racing suits or dress clothes as opposed to his jeans, t shirt, and leather jacket. He noticed some scowling looks of the others as he looked around.

"Another American?" The driver ahead of him spoke in a heavy Italian accent as he leaned against an orange Lamborghini Adventador J. "Where do they find guys like this?" He chuckled with the following laughs of a few others.

Sam ignored him and looked down the line to get a feel for the cars. In the impressive lineup was a Ferrari Enzo FXX, a Hennessey Venom GT, a Koenigsegg Agera R, a Lamborghini Adventador J, a Maserati MC12, a Pagani Zonda R, and a SCC Ultimate Aero. This was quite a stack that he would have to face against the Ford GT, while he clearly did not have the highest speed capability here, it seemed a pretty even match over all. It would make things interesting later on.

Before anyone else could say something, a blackened SUV pulled over in the rest stop besides the line. The driver got out and quickly told the drivers to get into their cars and line up on the Salvicon. With hast, all of the drivers entered their vehicles and quickly started them. Sam was placed in the rear of the double wide line up next to the Adventador J. As the vehicles were all in place, several things became projected onto the inside of the windshield much like some of the 00's Pontiac cars. Among the things projected was what position he was in and how long he had to go before he would reach the finish line. The race was going to be a very hefty 100 miles from this point until the end. It would be one hell of a race and he hoped that he was ready for it.

With all of the drivers snapping into position swiftly for the green light, the race was ready to begin. The guy from the SUV moved to the side of the road in front of the pack. He drew a flare gun from out of his jacket before he checked his watch for a few moments before he raised his flare gun into the air. The racers began to rev their engines as they got ready for the shot to pierce the sky. Sam held the engine's rpms at a substantial level that was just below the threshold of redlining. The shot was soon fired and the eight drivers stamped their accelerators down.

Off the launch, the first to belt off from the stand still was Sam, the Adventador, and the Aero. They were just a split second ahead of the rest, so they didn't gain much ground between the others. With all the cars accelerating, the Maserati and the Zonda were quickly taking the fighting just behind the Adventador who had the advantage of AWD over the rest of them. Sam kept with the pack as best as he could, but for the mean time he was snuggled in the mid rear for the moment; his saving grace was his power shifting and traction control. With these two things he was keeping up well. In seconds, all of the vehicles had broken easily over 100 mph and they did not taper off from aggressive accelerating.

The vehicles raced down the Salivcon as they all approached 200 mph. The group was quite aggressive in to what places they could keep. The Aero, Adventador, Maserati, and the Zonda were up front dueling it out for the first spot. Sam struggled to stay dead in the middle of the group; it was quite unnerving as the Agera and the FXX road neck and neck on either side of him while the Venom GT closely flanked Sam's tight side. Despite all the movement and speed, he stayed aware and on edge as he maneuvered with them as flowingly as possible.

Soon the pack was collectively going over 200mph. At this point, the cars with the acceleration began to drop from the lead as the faster cars crept forward. The Aero and Adventador easily stayed up in front for the time being while the Zonda began to drop back with the slower vehicles. The Venom, being of the two fastest cars next to the Aero, quickly could make a break if it wasn't for the aggressiveness of the other drivers on either side of Sam. Every time the Venom would make a move to get around, either the Agera or the FXX would block its route.

Eventually it would seem that the Venom got fed up with the toying after several attempts. With a much for forward approach, he began accelerating straight towards Sam's right flank portion of the GT's bumper. He spat out a curse word as he tried to move to the side to give the Venom some room; the issue was that neither the vehicles on either side would allow him to maneuver. To add to this, the Zonda was in front of him. He was boxed in. Unable to move, Sam watched as the Venom slowly nudged the rear of his car slightly before backing off to prepare to do it again.

Sam turned his wheel to the right slightly and the GT drifted suddenly at the FXX next to him. The FXX moved only a little bit before the two cars made contact and traded some paint. As the two cars had a bit of a scrape, the driver of the FXX seemed to panic as he snapped into the right lane away from Sam. Unfortunately for the driver, he failed to notice a semi-truck in the furthest right lane. Without any time to react, the FXX slammed into the rear of the slow moving semi. With the force of probably 120mph of difference, the Ferrari exploded on impact into a burst of fragmenting metal. Sam snapped back to his previous spot out of shock. With an opening now presented to it, the Venom GT, who had just avoided the wreckage by mere inches, accelerated forward passed Sam.

"Holy fuck!" Sam yelled out in distress before he tried to ignore the fact he had literally just caused someone's death.

The sudden happened would have probably passed through Sam's mind at some point before; racing on the Salvicon at 200+ miles per hour could potentially be fatal. The thing that bothered him was how easily he had not noticed the truck. Perhaps he wasn't fully awake. He hoped this wasn't the case as he would not want to end up like the FXX driver. Too much of his dismay, the Venom GT simply accelerated passed him as nothing had just happened. Sam swallowed his feelings and shook his head to clear himself before barreling on.

The race continued as such for quite some time. The positions shifted between the cars several times as there were bends and some obstructions on the Salvicon. For the most part the Aero, Adventador, and the Venom GT struggled for the lead while Sam maneuvered around with the Agera, Maserati, and Zonda just a bit behind the front. The opponents were quite aggressive; there had been several points in which paint was traded between the cars. Sam could handle this alright for now. It would only be an issue if the heavy nudges would start; especially at these speeds.

Sam swiftly maneuvered around a semi-truck as he overpassed the rest of the slower half of the group. Somehow he made the slip ahead of the Agera that was blocking him of just about everything he tried to do. He knew that he probably couldn't keep up with the front group, but he could most likely stay between the two parts of the pack. There wasn't all that much ground to make up as it seemed that the cars were all in the same general range of specs.

The cars roared on down the highway for several minutes. As the clock ticked and the racers approached a highly populated area, traffic began to be a more serious issue. The race shifted from trying to keep up the most speed to trying to focus on dodging the cars on the highway. The Maserati was the only one who couldn't handle the traffic as it would seem, as he ended up clipping a pickup truck hard. He very well was not harmed, but his vehicle was rendered unusable and he ended up just rolling to a stop on the shoulder of the road.

Sam found himself having a hell of a time with staying with the Aero and the Adventador. The traffic was not really a challenge to Sam as he was used to it. It would seem that the two in front of him were either experienced with car dodging or very lucky somehow. As it stacked up, Sam was right on the two lead car's heels through the traffic. Through the octane and soon to slim traffic, another small group of individuals would join the fray with the racers; in Sam's rear view mirror he spotted a trio of Highway Reapers blasting towards them. Their lights and sirens flashed and rang out vividly as they quickly gained ground on the pack.

The three Vipers quickly made their approach swiftly as the traffic quickly separated down the middle for the police vehicles. As the interceptors got closer a notification appeared onto Sam's windshield right below his position marker. The message read "Each participant will receive an additional 100,000$ for each Law Enforcement vehicle disabled regardless of finishing position." The message left a sudden cold feeling of dread; he knew that the message had been given to each of the racers. He would have no part in hurting a police officer.

Slowly but surely, the Vipers caught up to the pack. As they did, Sam could see one of them was Interceptor #042; his father's car. He cursed under his breath and watched as the trio moved in unison to take care of the rear of the pack. With a few shunts and nudges, the Zonda seemed to give up as it began to pull over quickly to the left shoulder of the highway. One of the interceptors broke from the trio in order to ensure that the Zonda's driver would be taken off the road. The pair of Vipers sped up to once again match the dwindling pack as the Salvicon began to open up of traffic.

With the new situation at hand, and a new intention for devastation laid down on the table for them, Sam decided to get some ground from the Vipers as best as he could. The Agera stuck close to him as he joined the Adventador up front. For whatever reason, the Aero and the Venom had begun to back off as if they wanted to meet the Vipers. As the two backed up, they waited until the interceptors had gotten to them before they boosted off to match their speed to them. With a seemingly cooperative measure, the Aero and Venom gave a series of nudges and shoves to one of the Vipers.

The two racers had managed, in a matter of seconds, forced the Viper into the side of a sedan. The sedan was sent careening off the Salvicon into a low sandy spot where it would slide to a stop and The Viper's metal was crumpled quite a bit from the collision, however it would be fine for continuing the pursuit. Despite this, the interceptor began to slow down rapidly; this was most likely to check on the occupants of the sedan to see if they were harmed like any good officer would do. The only Viper left now of the trio was Interceptor #042; Sam's father.

Without any backup, the lone Viper stayed back quite a bit behind the pack so that the pursuit would continue until more interceptors and support would show up to back him up. However, the Aero and Venom seemed very interested in going in for the kill. Against the interceptor's suddenly desperate movements, the two racers quickly got the Viper into a sticky situation. With the Aero behind the Viper and the Venom to the right flank, they began nudging and shoving the Highway Reaper towards the cement wall that served as the inside edge of the highway. Slowly but surely, the two racers had put the Viper in a rolling block that was only inches from the cement wall.

With the gritting of his teeth, Sam decided to take action. He quickly put his car in front of the Venom as he slowed down to meet the rolling block. With his car in front of the Venom, he suddenly slammed on the brakes. His tires locked up and the car quickly slowed down suddenly enough that the car behind him rear ended him. Even after the hard lurch of the collision, Sam continued to break for another second to fully grind the Venom away from his father. With a new opening for him, his father quickly took the chance to steer free from the close scraping of the wall; the Aero kept close in following the Viper as it moved. Sam stamped the gas pedal down and quickly accelerated after the Aero, leaving the now slowed Venom behind him with only heavy cosmetic on his front bumper.

It wasn't very long before Sam had caught back up with the Aero and the Viper as they were not accelerating all that quickly as the Interceptor was trying to maneuver away from the racer. Sam made a quick approach, and with his all American V8 supercar, he drove the nose of the Ford GT into the rear of the Aero. Upon collision, the cars buckled hard as the Aero's rear was lifted from the ground. As its back bumper was shoved up onto the GT's nose, its rear tires lost contact with the pavement. The driver seemed to panic in the moments of traction loss as he tried to steer his car clear of Sam's vehicle. This resulted in the Aero losing control as it turned sideways in a struggle for grip; the super car ended up just rocketing off into the concrete median with such force that it would spin the car around until it stopped motionless as it disappeared behind Sam in his mirrors.

About this time the Venom, now driven by a very enraged driver, had caught up with Sam and gave him the same kind of nudge that Sam had given the Aero. He cursed as he barreled on, using the force to his advantage to accelerate ahead of the Venom. After a few moments, the rival car had begun to move around Sam's right. It would seem as if he was going to try to perform a California stop on Sam by the rate he was moving. Sam, however, took a split decision to slide over to slip around a civilian car. In the split second that the civilian car was between the Venom and himself, he slowed down slightly before turning sharply at the Venom as he passed the civilian. The Venom's driver was taken by surprise and wasn't able to react before Sam's car gave a hard shunt to his vehicle. With such a shove, the Venom driver recoiled and was sent in the opposite direction. With the sudden change of direction, he lost control of his car and he ended up crashing nose end into an off-ramp railing; his car was violently split down the middle from the potentially fatal impact of the guard rail.

With the two aggressors taken care of, Sam checked for his father's Viper. As he looked to his left he saw that the interceptor was fine and still going strong. Unfortunately he had also managed to lock a quick gaze at his father, who promptly and very clearly mouthed the words 'what the hell, Sam!?' Sam sighed before looking back down the road as he punched the accelerator down. Ignoring his father, he pushed on for the two other remaining racers. Traffic had cleared up quite a bit and now it was a race towards the finish line that was still several minutes out. Here Sam had a bit of a disadvantage as the Agera and Adventador could reach a higher top speed than the GT. He dangerously drove the shaking vehicle at close to 240 mph; despite the hits, the only thing that he had to deal with was a slight turning towards the right from the collision of the Venom, but this was easily handled.

His saving grace was another batch of Highway Reapers that had joined into the pursuit just in front of Sam as they went to harass the two lead vehicles to get them to stop. This slowed them down enough that Sam eventually caught up. With some planning he quickly got around the two and immediately had to change his offensive to defensive as he was locked in a battle to keep both the other racers and the interceptors behind him. As he lead the whole frantic group of cops and racers, a police helicopter had joined the pursuit and now stayed overhead to watch and speculate. His efforts paid off as he was the first to pass the finish line that had been marked by a drawn line and a carefully placed flare on the side of the road.

"Fuck yeah!" Sam yelled as he slapped the steering wheel in victory. "Now for the heat…" Sam panted as the adrenaline had filled his veins.

Sam continued to keep the police behind him as he let the racers ahead of him. Even though they had lost, they still pressed on with their speed, thinking that Sam was helping them. He knew that the best way to get rid of the police would be to split from the two other racers by getting off the Salvicon. If the helicopter would follow them then that would be the best, he could handle the Reapers on the ground if need be. He looked forward for an off ramp to use to his advantage.

Up ahead he saw one that would lead off towards a large town to the south of the highway. He positioned himself for it as fast as he could by moving his car but a foot from the wall as he raced on. Without pressing on too much, he let the Reapers move around him. They immediately surrounded him, one of them going to his front and another closed in the side. His father's interceptor began to crawl forward on Sam's flank. Before he got too close, they had reached the off ramp. As they did, Sam snapped the wheel to get onto the off ramp, threading the needle between the off ramp's railing and an SUV so close that the railing had actually taken his driver side mirror off. With the sudden change of direction, he left the highway with the Vipers still on it. He looked back to see that not even his father, who had plenty of room to follow after him, was behind him. Unfortunately for Sam, the helicopter was following him.

Sam concentrated on driving first and foremost as he slowed down to slide around the right corner of the intersection the off-ramp dumped onto. He made the turn easily before he rocketing off down the road towards the center of town. Somehow through several slips and lucky turns he finally had found something that probably would only work in the movies. He had no options at this point; no matter what, running form an aircraft was pointless with-out cover of a tunnel or a bunch of trees. That is how he was always taught. On the west side of the town there was an aqueduct with several bridges that he might be able to at least get off the streets. What he was to do down there under the bridge was completely unknown to him.

He watched the helicopter in the air and what angle it was to the street. After passing several of the bridges on a street that ran parallel to the aqueduct, the helicopter was at the position in which it wouldn't be able to see directly down underneath the bridges. After grumbling something about how stupid this was, Sam snapped the wheel to the side of the road. The GT turned and quickly plowed through a loosely placed chain link fence just before driving over the edge of the street level. For a brief moment, the car had left the ground as it dove into the aqueduct. After the very short moment of weightlessness, the vehicle slammed against the ground with the nose slightly down. The gut-wrenching impact shook Sam viciously to discomforting levels. He grunted with pain and struggled to keep his focus as he braked hard to stop beneath the bridge.

The GT quickly slid to a stop in the dark shadow of the bridge. Sam barely allowed the car to stop before stumbling out quickly. Holding his now sore side, Sam ran swiftly to the base of the bridge. He thought it might be possible to wait until he could crawl up onto the street without the helicopter could see him. It was farfetched, but there was a chance. His ascent was halted by the sounds of the GT revving its engine. Sam turned in surprise to the car. What he would see would be hardly describable to him. There was a section of the rear that flipped upwards like doors to reveal several metallic Sci-Fi like thruster like objects that were hidden in the back of the car. The tires of the vehicle began to spin wildly and vivid blue flames shot out of the thrusters violently. The car lurched forward driverless as it was swiftly propelled further down the aqueduct. After the GT roared down the aqueduct several hundred meters, a high pitched whir that was emitted from the car quickly grew in intensity. The ringing whir sound hit an apex before the entire vehicle suddenly exploded violently in a huge plume of blue and purple hues.

"What the fuck!?" Sam covered his eyes as the explosion's illumination hurt his eyes in the still early dawn.

The helicopter moved quickly away from Sam's location in order to follow the now exploded car. Sam forced himself to shake the confusion from his head and use the chance to get away. And so, he quickly climbed up onto the side walk that ran along the bridge. He headed over the bridge with a very forced casual manner; the forced part was due mainly impart of confusion and the still apparent discomfort he felt from the impact. He looked at the result of the explosion that was illuminated by the search light of the helicopter that hovered above as they watched the burning wreckage of the supercar. He had never seen anything like that before; neither any thrusters like that installed into a car or even an explosion of that color. What bothered him was the question of whether it was rigged to kill him or if it was rigged to happen when he exited the car to destroy evidence. Neither was comforting to his racing thoughts.

Soon he had reached a safe distance from the wreckage that the police would most likely not bother him. In fact a pair of cruisers had sped past without paying any mind to him. His luck would somehow once again help him as he managed to find a public bus that was just about to leave a stop. He quickly got onto the bus and sat quietly towards the middle. The bus rolled off and he looked out the window to watch the buildings slowly pass by. He tugged lightly at his jacket to straighten out his collar before leaning against the inside of the bus. His eyelids felt heavy after a while; he found that he was slowly falling asleep. There was much to think and figure out. In such a short time he had won a million dollars and in just the same time span nearly died at the same event. It was really a lot to soak in. With a slow yawn he slipped further towards sleeping. His body couldn't take it anymore and so it began to plunge into unconsciousness.

'_What a crazy morning'_ he thought.


	5. Act 1 Chapter 5: Vanishing Point

SGTLEGENDKILLEЯ

Rebache

Act I Chapter V

"Vanishing Point"

_A1C5 Track _

_One Good Reason ~ Celldweller (Celldweller)_

D: 11:58 p.m. June 19th, 2016a_  
_

Sam slowly shifted his Challenger into park before slowly turning the key in the ignition to shut the vehicle off. He rested several moments in the leather driving seat as he listened to the engine tick and whirr softly from a lengthy drive. Shortly after his win the day before, he was given the location via phone call in which to meet Mr. Czar's assistant to receive his prize. The meeting place was out in the middle of nowhere just off a Salvicon exit. It was slightly hidden and secluded, so it would do just fine. With a sigh, he took a sip from a coffee he had picked up after filling the gas tank of the car just a few minutes prior to reaching the destination. He never did anything remotely like this in private without a full tank of gas.

Before exiting the vehicle, Sam reached over and took a pistol from between his seat at the center console. The pistol was a HK45 that his father had given to him on a previous birthday as a means of self-defense. Sam kept the thing in his car just in case of any unruliness that ever would happen in his line of work. He never once had to use it, but he was not one to go unprepared; he would use it if he had too. He set it inside a pocket under his jacket before he took a magazine and slide that into the same pocket as the handgun. He then exited the car and waited for anyone to show up.

The sky was patchy; through spots vacant of clouds stars could be seen. Even though the moon had given some solace from the dark landscape of the night, it hardly did more than lightly illuminating the scattered clouds overhead. For the most part, the only lights against the dense darkness were the headlights of the late night trucks that were traveling down the Salvicon that was just half a mile or so down the road from the meeting location. With a shiver, he put his hands in his pocket as he sat lightly on the front of the hood of his car; it was fairly chilly on this night for some reason.

Ignoring the sudden chill, Sam pulled out a cigarette from his coat and put it between his lips. He then began to fish around the multiple pockets of his jacket for his lighter. He did not usually smoke however tonight was different; this whole situation was already unnervingly stressful for him. The main reason he did not do it often was that he didn't like the taste or smell of the tobacco, but due to his father's use when he was younger, he had already been conditioned to tolerate the nasty burning cancer stick. He felt his fingers graze the metal tip of the lighter and so he pulled it out.

He lifted the lighter towards the end of the cigarette and flicked the striker twice before a small flame started from the lighter. He moved the flame to the tip and drew in slowly to help the cigarette catch. As soon as the tip held a good ember, he took a deep inhale of the cigarette as he slipped the lighter back into his pocket. With the fresh rush of nicotine in him, he gave a drawn out sigh as he let his tense shoulders sag softly. He looked down at the cigarette as he put his lighter away and shook his head in resentment.

He stood for a few moments, occasionally taking a few puffs of the cancer stick. Even after the few short inhales of the chemicals, his lungs begged for an end. Regretting the cigarette immediately, he decided to discard it. He went to take one final puff as a loud metallic screech rang out to the eastward sky. The sound made him jump at the immediate snap from silence. Wide eyed and stiff, he listened to the screech as it echoed loudly over the landscape in the distance. He was frozen from this as his mind was racing; his thoughts ran parallel between finding out what it was and getting in the car and splitting. His still stature was soon bothered by a new sound that had introduced itself from above. This time it was a loud whining hum that was unlike anything Sam had ever heard before in his life. With full uncertainty, he watched to the clouds towards the source of the sound. In was only a few moments before his curiosity was answered. Soon a swift moving beetle shaped object burst from the clouds to the east. He was quick to notice that the object not only was getting closer, but quickly heading directly towards him.

Sam stood from his car and watched with his feet planted in the dirt as he watched the strange object. The thing moved quite quickly, much like a determined military piolet helicopter. Strangely enough, the sounds or sight of any sort of blades could not be heard or seen from the object even as it began to slow menacingly just above where Sam was. He looked up at the bottom of the object to see that it was lit up like a Christmas tree with many spots of blueish light that ran alone the underside of the very alien shaped craft. He blinked quickly as the downforce of the very obvious non-Human craft kicked up a near constant blast of sand that flurried at Sam as it hovered loudly to a stop several yards ahead of the Challenger.

A beam of light shot down from an illuminated opening that appeared on the underside of the craft. The cigarette fell from Sam's mouth as he began to come to his senses from the quickly developing scenario before him. Having seen enough already, he quickly moved back to the driver side door of the Challenger. He had hardly slid into the seat before he turned the key of the ignition; the engine gave its familiar growl as he looked back up at the craft. As he did a large bipedal figure was being lowered down to the ground in the light beam as if it was some sort of gravitational elevator. The figure was Human like besides the fact that he placed it close to nine feet tall, it had digitigrade legs, and an overall sense of being the literal definition of a non-Human powerhouse. The creature held some sort of green tinted weapon in one arm as it pointed towards Sam. Its mouth split into quarters and spread widely as it snarled in a voluminous foreign tongue that was just below audible levels over the engine.

"Fuck this!" Sam spat as another creature descended from the craft.

Sam flicked his headlights on, which seemed to effectively blind the creatures where they stood, as he dropped the shifter into first and slammed down onto the gas pedal. The engine roared loudly as the tires spun furiously in the dirt. As soon as the vehicle began to roll forward, he turned the wheel swiftly to the left. The rear of the Challenger slid around before Sam corrected the wheel towards the entrance of the turnoff. Luckily for him, the spinning tires of the car threw sand up into the air, creating a dust cloud that would give him a bit of cover as he played with his pedals to get the Challenger moving.

The Challenger continued to slide and slip through the dirt as Sam made his way down the curved entrance to the turnoff. As he maneuvered the vehicle towards pavement, several green colored streaking projectiles zipped around the car. One of these streaks entered his passenger window and exited out the right side of the windshield. He flinched from what he could only think of a bullet going through the cabin. Despite the sudden fire, he paid as much concentration as he could allocate mentally on getting himself onto the road and putting some distance to whatever bizarre happening that had unfolded just moments before.

Soon the Challenger finally reached the roadway. Even as the tires hit pavement, Sam didn't let up. In turn, the wheels screamed for grip as the rear of the car swayed widely as he turned right down the road towards the Salvicon. He straightened out the car before power shifting into second. The car barreled down the road madly towards the highway. He looked in the rearview mirror to see the lights of the craft moving to pursue him. He questioned whether he would actually be able to get away from it, and soon as reached the onramps to the highway, he felt he would give it his best effort.

He slowed down to around 45 mph after downshifting into second from third to turn onto the onramp. The car lost traction as he fluttered the throttle mid turn. Despite the slight sliding of the rear tires, Sam managed to keep the car and himself very controlled. Just as the Challenger hit the sweet spot of traction while exiting the slide, he punched the accelerator to the floor. The supercharger of the car loudly wailed and shoved Sam back into his seat hard as the car bolted forward up the ramp.

Sam gripped the steering wheel tightly as the tachometer quickly run up into the red levels. He power shifted into third gear once the car reached the speed of 90mph. The Challenger bellowed as the engine churned devilishly under the hood as it propelled the driveshaft through the spindles. The car blasted onto the Salvicon at 115mph from the off-ramp. Sam looked back in the rearview once again to see the craft turning over the highway after him. He grimaced and shifted into forth as he passed a 'Speed Limit 125' sign on the side of the road.

'The Challenger buckled once more as it roared toward 150 mph. The car began to shake from the craft that pursued closely overhead; the craft's hum shook the car and even over the loud engine note of the car, it deafened Sam as it rocketed down the highway after him. He shifted quickly into fifth gear and sank back into his seat once again as the car roared on. Once again he tracked the location of the craft glancing up at it as he could out the windows. The craft only seem to waiver slightly from side to side as Sam would maneuver quickly around a civilian car or truck.

The speedometer reached 180mph and Sam then shifted into sixth gear. He grimaced as the speedometer slowly began to climb for 190mph. As the needle climbed and the car shook through the triple digits, he looked frequently to the right where the craft seemed to have no trouble keeping up with the Challenger. With the speedometer now reading 190, he began to feel a sense of dreed. For one, this craft was not letting him go without a fight. Secondly, he had never gone this fast in the Challenger. Sure, he had handled the Ford GT just fine over the 230 mph mark the day before, but never in his car.

"Cmon!" Sam shouted out in frustration.

His voice rang just short over the engine and the sounds of the craft. He watched as the Challenger struggled over the 195 mph mark. He breathed heavily, both of his hands shook against the steering wheel as the wind resistance ran its course over the vehicle. Over the period of several more seconds on the clock, the car struggled vigorously. Before he knew it, Sam watched the speedometer roll over to 200 mph; Sam didn't know that this car could actually do it, but it did. He watched out for any other vehicles on the road and blasted on at this speed.

He traveled at this for what seemed like minutes. He glanced every now and then to see if the craft was still there. After several frustrating moments of tension, the hum of the craft disappeared. All that was left was the roar of the Challenger. The craft, after following for minutes, had seemed too given up. Sam gave an excited smile of a hopeful victory, and so he began to slow down to a less straining speed.

His joy was short lived as a new sound could be heard approaching from behind. Sam checked behind him to notice a spotlight from a helicopter move up onto him from behind. He cursed under his breath and flicked his forgotten police scanner on to see what was going on. The radio turned on and immediately was filled with the crackling reports of a gray Dodge Challenger traveling down the Salvicon at speeds exceeding 185 miles per hour. The spot light of the police helicopter stuck to him as he continued his high speed traveling. He was grateful; the helicopter had probably scared the strange craft off, but now he unfortunately had to deal with law enforcement. He would much rather worry about them than whatever the hell he had seen from the craft. He had to lose the police. He doubt they would buy his telling of UFOs and aliens.

He raced on, the engine of the challenger bellowed steadily as he kept the vehicle around 185mph. He was waiting for the right moment to ditch the helicopter. It would be quite a challenge considering there was low traffic and hardly anywhere to effectively break the helicopter's sight on him. He doubted there would be any aqueducts to save him. Luckily for him there was hardly any traffic and he somehow even had not run into officers for several minutes. The lack of patrolmen would not last long however. Soon, after passing the occasional semi-truck, there was an upcoming exit to a small town near where his dad lived. He eventually had lead the helicopter on for so long that it followed closely behind to the point it was just a few meters above the elevation to miss the signs and trucks on the highway. Just then a pair of police lights quickly pulled onto the opposite side of the highway at an exit just ahead of him. He would need to act quickly now as those lights belonged the same highway interceptors that his father drove.

As he got to the off ramp he passed it as he was going to continue on the Salvicon. With a quick sense of style, he turned his lights off and pressed hard on the brakes. The car lurched harshly and quickly lost speed. The police helicopter, being so close on him, could not correct itself quick enough to counter Sam's sudden braking and so it flew quickly flew passed Sam, leaving him in the darkness as it began a rushed wide arc to circle around. Before it could do turn itself to find Sam once again, he had reached the other side of the overpass. He then pulled the emergency brake and slid around quickly into the dirt median between the two sides of the highway. Using the light from a streetlight under the overpass, he accelerated forward and quickly maneuvered between the railings of the overpass and skirted towards the descending turf towards the road beneath the highway. The two Highway Vipers had noticed this act of evasion as they accelerated in his previous direction over the overpass and had begun to slow down to try to catch one of the onramps off of the highway.

Sam continued to accelerate between the railings. The Challenger left the dirt as the ground slanted with angled concrete under the overpasses. The engine screamed loudly as the tires spun madly without anything beneath them to grip to. The car jerked furiously as it slammed against the angled cement; sparks shot out furiously as the underbelly of the car took the blunt of the return to surface. Sam grimaced as he desperately turned the wheel to the right in order to turn onto the roadway as easy as he could. The car clashed with the level pavement harshly, shooting more sparks on contact during this, and left the vehicle leaning on only two screeching wheels on the left side. Sam quickly corrected the vehicle and brought the car to all four tires once again before flooring the accelerator. Using the slight illumination of the moon above, he rocketed towards the town his father lived. He listened over the engine's roaring to find that the Highway Vipers couldn't get around to see what direction he went, and the helicopter had not arced around to see either. The helicopter was going off to the direction behind Sam and the two Highway Vipers were following his path far behind him. With this advantage, he floored on down the road. He knew the Challenger would never best the Vipers so he turned off on the first dirt road to go on a back road path which would eventually lead to their evasion.

After he eventually evaded the Highway Vipers, he continued on rolling through back streets and alley ways in order to get to his father's house. He steered clear of the locations that he knew that police would be sitting for speed traps and paid close attention to his police scanner to hear where the Vipers were looking. With some quick paced turns and snap decisions he soon slid himself into his father's driveway. He quickly rolled into the garage next to his father's interceptor and quickly ran to the garage door and closed it after turning the car off and exiting it. He looked out the glass panels to look for police just as a single Crown Victoria Police cruiser rolled by his father's house slowly. The cruiser continued down the road passed his father house. He was in the clear… or so he thought.

The sound of a shotgun being racked suddenly sounded out loudly behind him. Sam turned to see his father holding a 12 gauge at him from the other side of the Challenger. His father lowered the gun quickly as he saw it was Sam. His father now held the shotgun down by his hip, still in Sam's direction.

"Sam?!" his father shouted angrily.

"Dad! Calm down! I can explain!" Sam tried to get a word in before his father gave his expected earful rant of righteousness

"No Sam! I told you many times before: I am not helping you with your law problems! You get yourself out of this garage or I will call them and tell them you are here!" His upset father stood fast.

"Dad! Listen! There was something-" Sam tried to speak, but was cut off.

"I don't want to hear it!" His father swallowed. "I can't believe that you have the guts to show up here after what you did yesterday." He spat.

"C'mon, dad. I had to!" Sam argued stupidly, not having ammunition to spit back at his father.

"Oh?!" His father now shouted. "At those fucking speeds!?" His father never swore.

"I didn't set it up!"

"Then who did?!"

"I don't know! Some rich guy!"

"It had better been worth it, son." His father grimaced at Sam.

"A million dollars is worth it!"

"…What!?" his father stood confused, but never the less unwavering and strict. "And that warrants reckless driving and excessive speeding?!"

Sam had about enough of this, but he was being respectful for the time being, and remained quiet.

"You know three people died on that highway yesterday?" His father said darkly. "It made headline news, you know. You should be ashamed."

"I saved your life dad! Don't throw statistics at me!" Sam suddenly shouted, adding some fuel to the fire.

"Excuse me?" His father raised a bushy eyebrow.

"They were offering 100,000 dollars to anyone who hurt any police…" Sam admitting, quietly fearing how much he could tell his father.

"They… they did?" His father asked, a bit more calm than he was before.

"Yeah…" Sam looked down at the floor. He indeed felt a bit of sorrow for the lives lost and for the scolding.

His father gave a sigh. It was the kind of sigh that a father would give when he knew he was about to do something against all of his better judgement and gut instincts. "Get in here… Come inside. You can stay until this all dies down." His father spoke softly, caring but with a taint of moral defeat.

"Really?" Sam asked in disbelief.

"Yeah… now get in here before I change my mind." His father lowered the gun to his side as he pushed the safety in.

"Ok… Thank you. Just let me grab something real quick."

Sam quickly went back into his car and grabbed his phone from inside the door. He slipped the phone into his pocket and closed the door. Closing the door softly, he turned to join his father at the entrance of the garage. The unexpected hum of the alien craft suddenly built up from the front side of the house. The sound, seemingly coming from nowhere in an instant, made Sam stop dead in his tracks. His father, hearing it as well, raised his shotgun slightly towards the garage door.

"What the hell is that?" His father looked to the door nervously.

Sam turned slightly back towards the door uneasily. He was about to begin to explain quietly just before the center window of the garage was suddenly blasted inward by some sort of large metallic projectile. He didn't have time to move out of the way of the streaking object and so it struck him in the center of his chest. The force of the collision took Sam from his feet and to the cement floor of the garage. The blunt of the pain came not from the impact of the object or his back against the cement floor, but instead from the penetration of what felt like a spike being forcefully lodged several inches through his sternum. Sam gave a loud yelp as the object continued to propel against him even after colliding with him, pinning him to the floor.

The object, as he could see from his panicked eyes, looked like a large scale wing corkscrew without the ring on top and shorter levers protruding from the side. The object itself looked very much like some sort of carrier as the center of the object was an opening that a glass housed inside could be seen; the glass, much like a medical bulb, contained a dark green colored liquid that gave off a faint glow. The metal body of the object was made of a strange looking metal that glistened slightly from the lights of the garage despite it looking like the metal was rough in texture and unpolished. It was nothing he had ever seen in his 25 years of life.

He took hold of the object and tried to pry it from his check. This proved unsuccessful as the object somehow overpowered him as it was somehow still pushing against his chest. The levers on the side suddenly flipped up on the sides that the bulb was visible. As they did Sam felt four more shots of pain as if smaller spikes had entered around the first as if the object was latching against his chest. Once the object had latched into his chest, a section of the object seemed disintegrate into whitish light that would strangely disappear into thin air. As the section of the thing disappeared the force that it had holding Sam to the floor ceased. The liquid in the bulb began to illuminate brighter as it started to fizz and churn within the glass.

"Sam!" His father dropped to Sam's side as quick as he could. "Are you ok?!" His father asked frantically as he looked at the thing in his son's chest clueless.

"NO!" Sam yelled as he still tried to pry the thing from him in vain.

The liquid in the bulb then quickly sank from the glass towards his chest. He felt a deep surge as the liquid was forced into his body; the surge was swift and vicious, only taking a full second to complete. Sam found his entire body suddenly enflamed in deep and fierce pain that he mentally compared to being on fire while being crushed by a dump compactor at the same time. The pain was so severe that he found himself unable control his movements as he screamed trembling while he watching his skin begin to literally crawl and ripple.

His vision blurred drastically from the worst pain he had ever felt in his life. Every muscle in his body was constricting; every bone seemed to crack; every inch of skin burned. He tried to maintain any sense of control as his head rolled and twitched around slightly as he painfully watched the skin of his arms burning into a greyish color in quickly growing patches all over. As his skin seemed to change, the entire object began to disappear into fading streaks of light only to disappear without a trace.

His clothing began to feel tight around him as he felt his tensed muscles growing larger. More bones snapped and shattered under his changing skin. His vision started to blacken out around the edges, giving him tunnel vision. His breathing was sporadic to the point he felt as if his lungs would explode from his burning chest. Somehow he caught a breath before letting out a horrified wailing scream as his jaw snapped violently in half at the center.

"Sam!" His father's yell was the last thing he heard before swiftly blacking out.


	6. Act 2 Chapter 1: TiJTB

SGTLEGENDKILLEЯ

Rebache

Act II Chapter I

"This is Just the Beginning"

_A2C1 Track _

_Chemical ~ NoOne (NoOne)_

D: 9.23 a.m. June 20th, 2016_  
_

Sam awoke with a struggled gasp. His eyes opened widely to the view of his father's living room ceiling. The familiarity did little to calm his already fearing emotions as with each rapid breath, his mouth seemed to spread apart in multiple directions. In his panicked state, he could feel and hear a strange new heart beat from within his chest. Instead of the usual dual thumping that he would have been glad to hear, it was a flutter of multiple thumps; it was as if he had multiple hearts pumping instead of just one. A pained groan escaped his strange sort of mouth he now possessed; he was very sore from whatever had happened before he passed out.

Something was clearly wrong, even without looking at himself. His jaws began to hurt suddenly as if he was using new muscles for the first time, and so he went to inspect his cheek with a caress from his hand. As he quickly raised his hand instinctually, he stopped mid motion as he saw his appendage. In the place of where his normal hand would be was now a large, four fingered hand covered in medium gray skin. The structure of the hand, having two thumbs on either side of two index like fingers, was very alien to him. His gut sank as he closed all of the four fingers; they were truly his fingers. His new mouth twitched as his mental state slipped into a hardcore spike of franticness as his eyes quickly traversed from his hand and down his arm and onto his torso.

Before his frantic eyes fell before his now large, beefy chest that had grown to the point that his shirt had barely any fabric left to further stretch. Beyond his chest was his now strangely structured legs. Under his painfully tight jeans where a pair of massive legs that seemed to have two pairs of knees, making them have a very apparent digigrade structure. At the end of his new massive legs were large hoofs that were very different from his former human feet; they had even managed to burst his shoes open completely through the transformation. He let out a strained grunt as a numbing sensation came to him as be continued to wake up further. This feeling came from his legs as the jeans seemed to cut his circulation off by a bit; give or take, it was only slightly, but enough to make him feel it. Despite his desire to rest, he struggled heavily as he sat up.

Sam slowly continued to prop himself up so he could look down at his different self. With each passing second that he had a clear view on himself, his stomach churned unsettlingly as he grew more and more frantic.

"What the fuck…" Sam choked out incomprehensibly. His reply trailed off into a weird sounding fluttered groan as his mouth expanded wildly as he tried to speak. Forming words with the new mouth was the same basic concept as it would seem in comparison to his old one. However there was a lot more movement and muscles involved. Even his voice had changed with the process; it was less changed than most of him, but changed none the less. His voice was now much deeper on the octave scale and he would easily be labeled as a bass.

Sam inhaled sharply as a shot of pain that suddenly plagued his stomach. He clutched his side as he slowly fell over onto the floor. Before he could do anything else, his stomach, having enough of the stress and pain to reach a threshold, gave in and thus he threw up several times onto the floor. Between his pained heaving, Sam had barely managed to force himself off the floor so he wouldn't throw up all over himself. The puking lasted for at least a minute, and somehow through that time he had held enough strength to keep himself elevated on his hands and knees as he shook from the strain and panic flowing through his thoughts.

"S…Sam?" His father's voice called out softly from somewhere nearby.

"Dad?" Sam spoke out as he felt tears begin to run down his face. The emotions were hitting him hard now. His mind raced frantically, repeating the same words over and over: 'I am a monster.'

"We …" his father paused; he sounded clearly conflicted. "Uh… we will fix this."

Sam finally looked up towards his father's voice. Just a few feet away his father stood nervously clutching his shotgun at him. He couldn't blame his father's very obvious paranoid, but the sudden realization that he was at gun point did very well to add to the emotional toll of this ordeal.

"I'll take you to the hospital." Sam's father spoke a bit more firmly.

"Fuck that!" Sam spat out loudly, not used to his new vocal projection. "They'd cut me up on a lab table before they'd help me!" Sam quivered as more desperate tears dripped from his face.

"Well do you have any better ideas?!" His scared father shot back at him.

Sam grumbled softly as he did not.

"Thought so…" his father paused. "This is quite the situation you got yourself into, Sam." His father said coldly. It wasn't in hate, it was just from decades of police service. Dealing with the worse of the public does stuff to people's attitude in stressful situations.

Sam sniffled slightly as he tried to not be bothered by his father's vocal stress mechanisms. With a pushing urge, Sam propped one of his legs between himself and the floor. He slowly pushed himself up from the floor and was immediately hit with slight vertigo as he nearly hit his head on the ceiling. This startled him greatly and left him struggling with his arms spread out to level himself. Despite the attempts to stay up, his stilt feeling legs gave under his weight and bulked, leaving him to fall backwards onto his father's couch. The couch cracked loudly under his weight as it broke.

Sam looked down at himself once again and just let himself whimper as his tears stream down his face. In his mind, he was mortified; hell, he was downright petrified. In spite of this, he felt somehow restrained from showing emotions against it. He really wanted to scream and claw his skin in attempts to find his old self hidden beneath, but something deep down in him prevented him from doing much more than crying slightly. The fact that his father was present was probably not helping this as he hated to cry in front of his family

His father sighed loudly, realizing that his attitude had clearly been inappropriate. "Sam…" he said as he shakenly stroked his rough unshaven chin. "I'm sorry… I didn't mean anything by what I said. This all is just…"

"I know…" Sam whimpered with a soft sob as he wiped his strange face of its tears.

His father sat heavily into his chair across the room from the now broken couch that Sam sat on. "God damn it…" A spoken rarity from his father. "They didn't prepare me for this in the police academy."

The two sat quietly for several moments.

"A…are you ok?" his father asked awkwardly. "I mean… not like. With…" he looked Sam up and down. "As you are… But are you hurt?"

"Kinda" Sam shuttered with all of the emotions in his head. "Why?"

"Because that is all I care about. It's my job as a parent…" his father swallowed. "I don't know what you are or how this all happened. I mean…" His father paused. "This is some serious District 9 shit right here… I don't know. It's probably going to be a lot different actually living it rather than just watching…"

"Really?" Sam gave a weird stare.

"What?"

"You think of movies in a time like this?"

"Well…" His father snorted nervously.

"Whatever…" Sam tried to calm down further. While his form had been drastically, his angst and asinine outlook was still there.

"Good movie though…" His father comment rose a chuckle from Sam.

"It's… not that bad is it?" Sam asked suddenly.

"Well… yes. Yes it is, actually." His father was always one for somewhat harsh words.

"How bad…"

"It might be likeable with some time… I don't know. Do you just want a mirror?"

"No…"

"Ok…" His father sighed again "You sure there isn't anything hurting you?"

"I think I need bigger clothes…" Sam admitted rather quickly.

"Need help?"

"Yeah… please."

"I got an idea. I'll be right back." His father stood up. "You just relax ok?"

His father quickly left the room for upstairs. He soon returned with a large pair of slightly ripped blue jeans and a 5x button up flannel shirt. As random as it would seem, it was actually a Halloween costume that Sam had made a few years back where he was an overweight and stereotypical hillbilly. A good costume no doubt.

"Are you serious?" Sam scowled at his father.

"You have a better idea?"

"No… but still."

"I have scissors. Those pants look uncomfortable." His father admitted as he set the clothes down on the coffee table.

"They are… Let's get all this shit off please." Sam admitted, giving little care to being naked at this point; it would not be the worst to happen to him yet.

Sam and his father began the timely process of cutting the skin tight jeans off of him. It was a great relief to Sam to not have his large legs being compressed any more. Unfortunately there was a quick awkward moment as Sam caught a naked gaze between his now powerful naked legs. His genitals had seemed to have disappeared; the sight made his gut sink and his face flush in a wild mix of confusion, embarrassment, and panic.

"What the fuck… Where is my dick?!" Sam blurted out nervously.

"Maybe your reptilian or something… That looks like a cloaca…" His dad spoke like he was weirdly intrigued.

"A what?" Sam wasn't much into animal anatomy.

"It's what like… what snakes and turtles have… a slit." His father explained simply.

"… So it's a vagina?" 

"No… it shouldn't be." His dad shot a weird look at Sam.

"Whatever, let's just get the rest of this shit off of me." Sam sighed as he shook his head of the thought.

They spent a few more minutes getting the rest of his old clothes off via scissors. After all the clothes had been removed, his dad moved the mirror so that Sam could see his new self fully. It was not too surprising that he now looked very alien. Give or take his new form was bipedal and of similar proportions to regular humans, however this form, whatever it was, was an absolute powerhouse; he never had ever imagined that he would have come close to the muscular build he now possessed in his life. His eyes moved up his new body onto his new startling face.

His new head was quite the interesting piece to look at. It would be best described as in the shape of the skull of a blunt nosed viper without scales. His eyes were still the same color as they were before, except they held quite the aggressive looking vertical slit of a pupil; again, much like a snakes. Under both of his upper lip were two pairs of mandibles lined with sharp looking teeth that ran along the inside of the maw he now had. Over all, he didn't look to bad in terms of aesthetics; he figured that he might be able to make some Sci-Fi nuts get off if need be, but nothing more than that.

"Well shit…" Sam said slowly as he watched his mandibles flutter as he spoke the words; it was nothing less than weird.

"You're telling me…" his father sighed, knowing exactly what Sam was looking at.

"At least I don't need to hit the gym." Sam had found something to make him chuckle.

"You said it… Now let's get these clothes on you."

A few moments later they had figured out the small setup of clothing they had available for him. After all was said and done, and a few minor modifications had been made to the jeans, Sam once again had fitting clothing. It wasn't quite perfect, but due to the shortening of the jeans and the sheer size of the clothing, he had a half decent pair of recently made shorts and a flannel shirt. With the clothes situation taken care of, everything seemed to calm down. Sam was fairly calm and his father had turned on the news to see if this was all a single isolated instant or a worldwide thing.

For the most part the news seemed cold on topics. The weather was pleasant and there was some local bullshit reels to run in between the horribly made used car sale and male enhancement adverts. As they waited for something to kick up Sparky, being awoken by the television, finally caught wind of people being up and around. It seemed as if he was unbiased on the situation as he slowly crawled up onto the couch next to Sam before laying down with his head on top of Sam's lap.

"Well… at least he knows it is still you…" His father chuckled.

Sam slowly began to pet his dog just as the news anchors came back onto the picture with another line of crap to fill the air. This time however, they actually had news to show. The words appeared on screen were read aloud, not much unlike all basic forms of mass propaganda was, in a very clear format: 'Alien First Contact Made in Portland, Oregon.' Sam's eyebrow raised at this.

"We have breaking news coming out of the North West ladies and gentlemen." The aged newscaster spoke excitedly as he broke the boredom. "Apparently a woman in South Portland this morning woke up to quite the exciting scenario. She claims that 'an alien broke into her 20 year old daughter's room and was trying to put her clothes on.'" The newscaster gave a chuckle at the stupid line that was most likely written for him. "We have the luck of having a reporter from our department out there to give a live interview with the woman."

The screen snapped over to another window with an onsite reporter woman waiting with a big smile. "Hello and good morning America! This is CNW reporter, Stacey Trimble coming to you live from Portland, Oregon." She spoke with an annoying amount of pep. "How are you doing this morning, Laura?"

The camera panned over quickly to a middle aged blonde woman who stood next to a concerned looking police officer. "I am alright I guess… a bit shaken you know."

"Yeah, I bet. Would you maybe like to elaborate on what happened?" Stacey asked, cutting coldly right to the point.

"Well… yeah. I just woke up last night to the sound of a window being shattered." The woman began animatedly. "I got up and investigated what it was and I then found this large, squid faced alien thing yelling and screaming as it was tugging at clothes it had stolen from my daughter's closet!"

"It was stealing clothes?" 

"Yeah! Sort of… It was trying them on or guess… why else would an alien be wearing my daughter's clothes? Freak by nature I guess."

"Where is your daughter now?"

"Oh I don't know." The woman seemed kind of annoyed by that. "She probably ran off with her boyfriend last night. I haven't seen her."

"And… where is the alien?" Stacey once again coldly cut to the task at hand.

"It is still in my daughter's room." She said proudly. "It is too large to fit through the windows and I barricaded the door close with some rope and a cabinet."

"All by yourself?"

"You bet!"

"So…" Stacey again slowed the interview down. "There is a few more questions I'd love to ask you. First off, have you seen this thing before?"

Laura was about to answer the question until the front door of the house that they were standing in front of burst open. From the doorway stumbled one of whatever Sam had become; this one was not as muscular as Sam and instead looked more feminine in form. The creature was indeed wearing a set of very stretched woman's night wear that remained from her transformation. She struggled down the front porch towards the interview group as she sobbed helplessly. This was the woman's actual daughter.

"Mom! Help me!" Her daughter cries out loudly in broken and frightened English that might have been considered nothing more than a series of sobbing moans and yells.

"There it is!" Laura freaked as Stacey and the camera man backed up several paces back as the woman's daughter stumbled down the sidewalk after them. The police officer held his hand up with his hand at his hip as he demanded that the 'creature' stopped. Laura's daughter failed to comply as she continued to cry for her mother's aid.

"Oh no…" Sam's father sat up rigidly in his chair. "Don't you do it, kid."

The police officer on live television drew his gun in a sudden impulse and he then unloaded the magazine of his weapon into Laura's daughter. The girl submitted quickly to the small arms fire and her limp and silent body collapsed heavily against the edge of the road. There was a moment of stillness before the broadcast ended. The screen reverted to the view of the anchorman who was frozen in shock. With a vicious stutter, the news man slowly apologized for the graphic images that the network had just shown and that they would go to an extended commercial break.

Sam and his father sat silently in the living room. The way that was all handled was atrocious and both of them knew this could bring some serious bad taste in the eyes of the public about whatever happened to that girl and Sam. This meant that Sam would have to potentially stay hidden at his father's house as a secret; despite the fact that he really hadn't wished to be seen as he was now. They were both suddenly started by Sam's phone that began to blast its metal ringtone. Sam quickly reached over and checked the screen to find that the caller was only listed as 'Czar' with 'restricted number' beneath it. He swallowed quickly and answered it. He quickly turned the speakerphone on the call and held the phone in his hand.

"Hello?" Sam asked nervously.

On the other end of the phone was the sound of a deep toned voice laughing softly or muffled by distance.

"… Who is this?" Sam asked a bit firmly.

"Sam Kampten…" The voice rumbled out deeply.

The voice irked Sam greatly, making him very nervous. "Who the fuck is this?"

The voice just laughed loudly, as if some great joke had been performed. "You will know soon enough!"

"W…what?" Sam tensed up as he became quite creeped out.

"This is only the beginning…" The line went dead.


	7. Act 2 Chapter 2: Bite My Tongue

SGTLEGENDKILLEЯ

Rebache

Act II Chapter II

"Bite My Tongue"

_A2C2 Track _

_Welcome To The End ~Celldweller (Celldweller)_

D: 11:43 p.m. June 20th, 2016

It had become late and the day had hardly become any easier to deal with from when he woke up in the morning. Somehow, despite his body now being completely, and literally, being alien to him, something within his mind seemed to regulate him from losing his shit. He would have loved to sit down and throw a fit, or cry, or even contemplate breaking stuff, but something just stopped him from doing such. This aspect of the change threw him off drastically. Even more so than most of the change in itself. He wished he knew why he felt nothing towards the change.

One thing that bothered him was how his father was taking the situation. Unlike Sam, his father was totally freaking out about it; every second that Sam spent within his eyesight seemed to further his father's paranoia. He would support and help Sam until his dying breath, but he clearly didn't know how to help with the transformation. Sam, figuring that he would kindly help by not sticking around to make his father even more paranoid, decided to go out for a late night drive.

He had somehow managed to get the driver seat tilted and moved back far enough that he could fit in the drivers seat. It took a bit of determination and strain to relearn how to use the clutch and pedals with his new legs. Once he became reacquainted he spend several long drawn out minutes driving around aimlessly down the dark streets of Texas as he silently attempted to figure out what the hell was going on.

The radio station talk shows that he flipped through did little to aid him in his mental pondering. The soft volume noise did nothing but really show him how the public was freaking out about what was going on; people were beginning to raid stores for supplies and ammo, others were religious extremists preached that the end was here and the only way to stop it was eradication of the 'demons.' The law enforcement agencies were having a field day in trying to calm the public down as they threw out every peaceful policy or statement they could provide without trying to go to the state governments to request drastic measure. To make matters worse, the happenings were unfortunatly worldwide as it would seem. There were 32 cases in the United States so far and dozens from other highly populated areas in the world. How the individuals were treated so far was not very desirable. It was either they would get shot in fear and uproar or taken into custody by law enforcement agencies to god knows where. Sam didn't want to find out, and so he would lay as low as he could.

Going out onto public road ways might not have been the absolute best thing he could do, but it was one of the best way he could come to a state of mental peace. Something about being behind the wheel had always been calming to him; like a strange but effective method of therapy that he used frequently. Maybe it was the feeling and sounds of the turning engine under the hood of the Challenger; or maybe it was something more subtle, like the feeling of being entirely in control of your situation. It was the spectrum of the same freedom to participate in the laws like anyone else or break them. What one did was up to that person at the helm.

Eventually he turned out of the town roads and headed for a nearby on ramp of the Salvation. Once he turned onto the highway entry, he shifted into a lower gear before stamping the gas down. The warm engine gave a blissful roar as it happily fulfilled it's master's command. He quickly accelerated to the speed allowed on the highway to give himself the satisfaction of being pushed back into the seat again. He wasn't looking to cause trouble tonight so he didn't push it. Although he really figured that if he really wanted to he probably could get away with some speed play if he wanted since the police everywhere were busy with other serious matters.

Tonight just happened to be a good night for highway driving. There was only very small handful of cars and trucks on the Salvicon. This left it wide open with a clear sky above; the only illumination besides his head lights was the reflecting light of the unobstructed moon. This was the time and place to drive; the dimly lit landscape of Texas was absolutely gorgeous. If one wanted too, they could just travel through the night at achieve nirvana through the scenery.

However, right now his wandering mind hardly cared for the road or the surroundings of the highway. He was now trying to wrestle with thoughts he had dispelled many times throughout this day. How would Nicole handle this? He had pushed off her many, many phone calls of the day. He felt horrible for doing so but he had no idea if she could fathom what had happened. He couldn't and it had happened to him; how could she? He was planning on calling her back, but he was thinking now that a face to face reveal would be better and so he was heading to her house to try to talk with her. Once again, he didn't know how to set this all up.

After several minutes of driving, he exited the Salvicon and headed towards Nicole's town. With each mile he drove closer to her house, he would question whether showing up at her house was a good idea. Maybe it would be best to meet her in somewhere quiet, familiar, and away from civilization. Deciding that the latter was the best of those two choices, he turned down a back road that lead away from Nicole's place. The road lead out to a hidden spot behind an old abandoned barn that he and Nicole had been to before many times. It was a place that the two would go to in the past to be away from everyone to stargaze, camp, and to fornicate to their heart's content.

He rolled to a stop behind the barn so his car would not be seen from the road if by chance someone was passing by. He turned off the engine and sat still, listening to the engine tick and shift from the slowly fading heat of use. With some self arguing and forcing strength into his arms, he picked up his now small phone and unlocked the screen; two missed calls from Nicole in just the last 10 minutes. He sniffled and pressed her name on the notifications, beginning the call to her before he put it on speaker phone. It rang for only one set of rings before she answered.

"S...Sam?!" She frantically answered. Her voice was tender and lost from long sessions of tears. Her voice hit his ears and destroyed his defenses; he hated hearing his queen like this.

He wanted to say he was sorry and to ensure her that he was fine but he flat out couldn't. His throat locked up as he felt tears rushing to his eyes and his nerves break to the point he began to shiver with sudden sadness; he wasn't prepared for this.

Nicole exhaled sharply before huffing slightly as she fought back her own emotions. She was a smart girl and already had figured out why he hadn't answered her calls. "It... it happened... didn't it?"

Sam hardly could respond with much more than a strained whimper.

This was more than she needed as an answer. "Babe..." She sniffled loudly, as if too gain some strength for this. "Sam. Its OK."

With her words, her basic and quick acceptance of what had happened to him, he broke entirely. Unable to help himself as the dam that was his emotional stability broke wide open. He was left sobbing uncontrollably. Knowing that this was needed, Nicole sat there quietly listening as she let her now fragile king cry his heart out over the phone until he calmed down after a long while.

"Where are you, babe?" Nicole asked softly and somehow composed.

"I..." Sam huffed pathetically before wiping his eyes. "I'm at the barn..." he stopped once again for a wave of sobs. "I wanted to see you but... but..." speaking became hard as more tears came.

Nicole hushed him calmly. "Its alright, hunny... Give me a few minutes. Ill be right there, OK?"

Sam answered dumbly with an 'uh huh.'

"Ill bring a few blankets with me. Just relax, Sam. Ill be right there..." The sounds of her gathering her things cluttered through the line.

"I...I will be here." Sam choked.

"I know you will. Just relax, hunny... Please. Don't hurt yourself." She instructed, mature as always.

Sam nodded quietly before ending the call. As soon as the call was over he dropped the phone and struggled with another huge session of tears. Inside he was eternally happy that she wasn't scared; that she was not going to act drastically and reject him. That, however, was countered by the equal demons who challenged how long her coolness would last.

He waited impatiently for her for the very few minutes it took for the sounds of her Baja Bug to grow from the distance. Its engine note in the distance sounded rushed and powerful; she was racing to him. With each second, the exhaust note of her car drew swiftly closer and closer. Eventually the headlights began to grow around the corner of the barn that Sam faced and with grace, her Bug slid to a stop around the corner. Nicole sat still for several moments, watching towards Sam's Challenger before turning off her car.

After a few silent moments of Sam looking back at her in the shadows of his darkly lit cabin before popping the door open and getting out slowly. He tried to exit his door as smoothly as possible by holding his weight up with the door and the roof of the car. With a bit of shaking efforts, he stood up on his legs that he had only just begun to get used too. He felt his throat begin to tighten once again as he could see the very brief panicked look that Nicole wore when she finally saw him. Even though she quickly composed herself and turned to having no fear or unease about him, his knees began to feel weak from the brief look. With some mustered strength, Sam moved from his door and closed it. He took a few steps towards the front of the car before his quivering legs gave out beneath him, leaving his knees to fall heavily into the sand. He grunted in annoyance. He had no plan for how he was going about this; there was no words that he could hope to say to her. With a frustrated groan, he rested his arm on the hood of his car to support himself as he looked down at the ground, feeling stupid. He sighed sadly and let a single tear roll off his cheek.

"Sam..." Nicole spoke softly after some time before him. She had gotten out and made it over to him after had fallen.

She frowned slightly when he seemed to ignore her.

"Hey... come on." She smiled as she lightly took his jawline in her hands. "Look at me."

With a tad of her influence, he looked up silently up to her. It wasn't that he really had to look up or anything; Even on his knees he was just below her eye level at his size.

"Sam... Its OK." She smiled. "I'm here now."

"Thank you..." Sam choked up shakily.

"Of course." She smiled a bit more before she stepped a bit closer to hug him as best as she could.

As she hugged him, he wrapped his arms around her tenderly, careful not to hurt her, as he softly nuzzles his head under her chin. He couldn't help the soft heaves his lungs gave as his crying returned. While he knew not how to act on this scenario, he was at ease in the fact that he now felt safe. Maybe it was her acceptance and support that she was all too eager to give him, or maybe it was the simple comfort of having another to embrace after this had all happened. Whichever it was, it was a vital component that he clearly needed. With this warmness unfolding between the two, they stayed stationary; he held his lady and she held her man with all of the tenderness the two could collectively share between each other.

"I love you." Nicole whispered into Sam's ear, tightened her hug around him.

"How?" Sam spoke doubtfully with sniffles. "I'm a freak..." he huffed softly.

Nicole rolled her eyes. "You stop that shit right now, Samuel." She said calmly but sternly, snuffing out any of that depressive talk out immediately.

"But..."

"No." She pulled away from him and looked him in the eye. "You stop that bubbling cliché. You will be fine."

Sam grimaced slightly; he hate her guts. "How will I be fine?"

"You'll be fine because I say you will be."

"What makes you say that?" Sam protested.

"Well..." She smiled. "I think you kind of look just fine. Besides... I don't care what you look like as long as its still you."

"I guess..." He looked down as he had no protest.

"You look cool in fact." She chuckled as she tried to lighten the mood. "This is just like District 9." She chuckled.

"Yeah? Except I'm not a bug."

"They were shrimps, Sam... Not bugs." She corrected immediately in a matter-of-factly fashion.

He scoffed.

"Well... its either that or a less shitty version of Skyline..."

"Yeah? A version where we all don't automatically die?" Sam couldn't hide the faint smile from the sudden turn of topic.

"Exactly..." she hugged him once again.

"I'm sorry..." he sighed against her, embracing around her once again slowly.

"For what? Its not like you totally went out of your way to have this done too you."

"True..." he sighed.

"But then again" She chuckled playfully. "I know how much you go looking for trouble."

Sam chuckled in response. "Now what?" He asked her after a long pause.

"We are going to lay some blankets and pillows down and relax. That is what you need to do."

"Yeah... your right..." He let go of her and carefully stood himself up. As he did, he noticed that she took a step back from him to look up at him.

For a moment she seemed to take a finer look onto his new form. She had even seemed to bite her lip slightly as her eyes glazed over him. Sam smiled slightly at this; whether she would say it openly or not, she liked how he looked. After a moment of treating him like eye candy, she shook her blushing self before going back to her car to get blankets. She quickly set them down at the side of the barn. Sam carefully moved over to the soft plush canvas and pillows before he slowly rested himself down, careful not to fall over onto Nicole. Once he was settled down on the blanket she sat next to him; without a moment to pause, she quickly moved to snuggle against his side. As her warmth joined with his, his mind slipped even further into calmness as he had before; instinctively he wrapped his arm around her so she could be embraced by him and have a place to rest her head.

For a brief point in time, all was peaceful; the only sounds that stood out from the quiet Texas night was Sam's louder-than-normal breathing. The two just lay against each other as they shared body heat from one of the other. Since Sam was clearly the much larger of the two, this case was a lot more true for him. Despite this, the sky was very clear and the stars above were very visible to the naked eye.

Nicky shifted slightly from him. "Which one do you think your 'new' people come from?" She asked openly as she watched up to the sky.

"Hmm?" Sam looked over at her slightly before looking upwards. He sighed softly in slight confusion.

"Do you think they are from over there?" She asked s she pointed towards the east.

"I don't know, hun. Who knows what star group they are from..."

"'Star group?'" she giggled.

"You know what I mean." Sam rolled his eyes with a smile.

"Yeah... I think they are from over there" She smiles and pointed now towards a fairly bright cluster of stars to the west.

"Maybe. But I don't really care..." Sam sighed. "I just want to be here with you..." He put simply. "That's really all I care about right now."

Nicky smiled as she moved up and kissed his cheek.

For the time being, things were alright.


	8. Act 2 Chapter 3: The Pursuit

SGTLEGENDKILLEЯ

Rebache

Act II Chapter III

"The Pursuit"

_A2C3 Track _

_In It to Win It ~ Saliva (In It to Win It)_

D: 12:23 A.M. June 24th, 2016

It had been nearly an entire week since Sam had become the way he was now. He had strangely grown almost accustomed to it by this point; it had been so long that he no longer had issues speaking or walking or really doing any task for that matter. The fact that he had nearly acclimated to his new form flawlessly and with great ease bothered him to say the least. For what it was worth, he had the support of his father and Nicky. Despite how much he had grown to his self, the public view of the victims of whatever happened to Sam was terrible.

Tensions had become quite high; Sam had been lucky enough to have been able to lay low at his father's house without the need of having to go anywhere. In hopes to see there was any sort of help for those like him, Sam had scoured the airwaves and the other tabloids to see what was happening outside of Texas. The way the whole situation was being handled was absolutely horrendously; no one really seemed interested in helping those who had been changed. The ones around the globe that had not been 'collected' by the world governments had either been killed off by their own home communities or had taken their own life in fear of what might happen to them. Sam knew there was several out there who had slipped into hiding or just flat out ran away like a dog fleeing an abusive owner's home. He also knew that it was only a matter of time before either the government, who had seemed quite interested in 'cleaning' up whatever was happening, or some redneck vigilante discovered Sam and decided to do whatever they wished to do to him. Regardless of whatever was going on, society as a whole was becoming very jumpy and paranoid. To top things off, it didn't help that everyone across the United States were practically raiding stores for ammunition and supplies.

Now, as much as his father had advised against it, Nicky and Sam were on their way to her house to give his father some space and for some privacy. It had taken the heaviest toll on his father, who had spent the entire week sleepless and paranoid for himself and his son. He had not been to work since Sam had changed. As much as he would have hated to admit it, he needed some time to rest and sleep, and so the two left him to take some sleeping aids and an empty house to not have to worry about. Hopefully, he would actually cash in on said sleep while they were gone.

To their much of their fortune, it was very early Friday morning; the only people still out on the roads were a few people that were around for whatever late night activity was going on. They had stopped along the way to get gas from a gas station in the middle of town. Nicky got out to pump the gas and Sam sat in the car, hidden by the dark window tint of his window and in the shadow of the roof of his car. He watched Nicky walk into the store to prepay for the gas. Once she disappeared into the store, he sat wordlessly as he looked around his car at the three holed paths through his car that those aliens had shot through his car. He had filled in the holes with some basic carpenter filler. It wasn't perfect, but it did its trick. Even if it had not had worked perfectly, there were other damages to the vehicle from the same instance that were more important. Like the now somewhat loose bumper cover on the front and the scrap marks on the underside of the car from the brief airtime that it had achieved while exiting the highway.

Sam looked back to the store to see Nicky return outside as he went to pump the gas. As she placed the nozzle into the fuel, he looked away as he was forced into a deep yawn; a reflection of his own tired self. If it had not been for Nicky, he would most likely not slept at all. This was one of the many ways that she had helped. Whether he would admit it openly or not didn't matter, he did truly did appreciate it. Of course now he faced the issue of not really knowing how to show it. He was different enough now to even question whether trying the normal way of displaying his emotions would even come across appropriately in his new body.

When he looked back towards the store just in time to notice the clerk approaching the Challenger. Sam recognized the clerk, Frank Owens, who was a good friend of his father. If it had been anyone else who had worked there Sam would have already had made an attempt to escape, but if there was anyone outside of the family who would be non-hostile towards Sam's current state it would be him. As Nicky attempted to stop Frank a few paces from the pump, Sam noticed he was carrying a few boxes in front of him. Even before she had stopped Frank in his tracks, she began to give him just about every excuse to not see Sam; the catalog consisted of everything from 'he is sick' to even 'he's not even in there.'

Unable to stand by any further without intervention, Sam rolled the window down. "Nicky! It's right..."

"But Sam!" Nicky gave nervous protest.

"It's just Frank, babe... He isn't going to hurt me." Sam sighed.

She stepped aside and let Frank past.

"Sam? Is that really you?" He asked almost astonished.

Sam simply nodded as Frank stood before the door of the car.

"When Nick said you were pretty sick I... I had a feeling this is what she meant."

"Yeah..." Sam sighed. "We have been trying to keep it quiet."

"Well no shit!" Frank scoffed slightly. "With how everyone is handling all of the others? I'm not surprised..." He paused to consider. "It makes me sick knowing that people could do that to their own..."

"Crazy people make people do crazy things." Sam reasoned softly.

"That's a crock of crap, Sam, and you know it; your like one of my kids by this point. I've always been there for you and your father and I couldn't imagine myself doing what some of these loons are doing!"

Sam sighed. "If only everyone else could share your beliefs..."

"Yeah... Well, anyway... I won't keep you any longer. You should probably get back to where you need to be."

"Thanks, Frank."

"Here... I threw these boxes of things together for you two." Frank told Sam as he passed the small boxes he carried out through the window. "There is stuff like food, medical stuff, and some other things that you might need."

"Oh... Well thanks again. We might need these." Sam smiled slightly at the sudden gifts as he placed them in the back seat of his car.

"Anytime, Sam." Frank stood back from the window. "The gas is on me too... If you need anything else let me know, alright?"

"Yeah... We will."

"Alrighty then. Run along, now." Frank took yet another step back as he watched Nicky return to her side of the car.

Sam started the car as she slid into the seat beside him.

"Stay safe, Sam!"

"Will do!" Sam spoke above the idling of his car.

Sam shifted into gear and drove to the exit of the gas station. He rolled his window up and looked both ways down the street before pulling out onto the empty road. With a full tank of gas and the good blessing of a family friend, he eased down the roads through town. Nicky had been silent for several moments before she placed her hand over Sam's hand that rested on the stick.

"I'm sorry... I slipped up back there..." Nicky admitted softly.

"It's alright, babe... We just have to be more careful, alright?" He assured her soothingly to ease any nervousness she had.

"I guess so..." She got quiet for yet another long while as the two stared down the barren streets of the town.

"Nicky?"

"Yeah?" She looked over at him from her gaze at the side mirror.

"I love you..."

"I love you too."

"I want you to know that if anything happens to me, I will do everything I can to make sure your OK... Alright?" Sam looked over at her.

Nicky shifted in her seat slightly. "Sam... stop talking like that."

"Huh?"

"It scares me..."

"Of course..." He nodded slightly as he placed his large hand on her knee. "Sorry."

"It's alright... You didn't mean it..."

Sam looked forward again with a smooth exhale. "It's a nice night a drive..."

"Yeah..." She sighed. "It might be better if there weren't cars behind us..." Nicky pointed out as she looked back to the mirror.

"There are cars behind us?" Sam asked, surprised he had not even really noticed any. 

"Yeah... They turned onto the road right after we left the gas station..." She yawned softly.

"Huh." Sam noted tautly as he moved himself so he could actually look into the mirror.

Nicky immediately sensed his sudden nerves. "What's wrong?"

"I'm doing five under the speed limit... they should have passed a while ago..." Sam looked back at the two pairs of headlights that were seemingly mirroring his speed.

"Fuck." Nicky cursed very nervously as she checked her seat harness.

Sam looked up ahead to the next intersection that was just a bit ahead of them. He didn't like the implication of being followed, and if he was being followed, he would rather know about it. And so he figured a simple method to test this.

"Hold on." He instructed her as he tightened his grip on the steering wheel.

At nearly the last moment, Sam threw his right turn signal on and swiftly made the turn but a moment later. As he shifted the direction of the car towards another road, he watched as the pair of cars followed his direction. The two vehicles, a red and black colored R34 Skyline followed by a dark gray Hummer H1, matched Sam's pace and turn visibly under the streetlights. Sam gritted his jaws together and turned right onto the first road after his initial turn; once again, the vehicles stayed with Sam as he turned with no indication.

It was obvious by this point; while the vehicles were making no directly aggressive maneuvers, they seemed quite aligned on following him. Despite his rising nervousness, he wasn't going to stop for them. If anything, he would accept such a fate if they could catch him. Sam shifted into a different mindset at this realization yet he somehow returned to his calm and eased pace he had after leaving the gas station. Doing his best to play it off like he had made a mistake and forgot something, he turned back onto the road they had been on after another correction. This time they were heading back towards the gas station that they had left. And so the two vehicles continued to match his pace as he continued on down the road through many sets of green lights. Eventually they approached a soon to be red light; which was what Sam was hoping before. He stopped the Challenger appropriately at the red light. As expected, the two following cars stacked up behind him. Sam looked down each direction of the road to see only a Semi truck coming down the left road with the current green light.

"Do you trust me?" Sam asked Nicky quickly as he watched calculatingly at the truck that was soon to enter the intersection.

"Yes." With her word, he readied himself.

At the perfect moment, Sam stamped the gas pedal down before dropping the clutch down a moment after the engine began swiftly rising to power. The tires squealed aggressively as the car belted forward in front of the truck. Nicky let out a terrified scream as the truck blared its horn as the car raced into the intersection. Despite all of this and due to precision planning, the Challenger cleared the intersection just before the truck entered the intersection. Once the car had reached most of the way through the intersection, Sam viciously turned the wheel left as he sent the car into a sliding J-turn. By the time the truck had passed through the intersection, Sam had flipped the car around towards the opposite direction and had begun fighting the pedals as the car began to accelerate past the two followers. Sam glanced over just enough to notice that the Skyline was sporting a hidden blue colored light strip.

The Challenger roared loudly down the road as fast as Sam could push it. As he roared on through the gears he had glanced back to see that the Skyline had pulled a quick U-turn after Sam. By the time that he had shifted into the third gear, the Skyline was starting to catch up. This was quite the surprise to Sam as he had never seen a Skyline with as much pickup as this one did. Despite his attempts at besting the follower at speed, the interceptor roared up behind the Challenger with quite the menacing amount of ease; it was as if it had hardly been tested. Once it had placed its clear presence behind the Challenger, the Skyline jolted forward as it accelerated it's bumper into the rear of the Challenger. Sam's car shifted harshly from the shunt enough to jar the two in their seats.

"Fuck!" Sam shouted as he quickly corrected the wheel from the shunt.

Nicky had just about lost her mind at this point. No matter how much she trusted Sam, she could not help being terrified.

"Nicky! Grab the phone!" Sam shouted as he watched the Skyline furiously turn and accelerate to the right side of the Challenger. "Call my dad!"

Nicky frantically grabbed the phone that somehow hadn't gotten thrown from the pockets of the center console. She quickly attempted to make a call. "It's not working!"

Sam was going to raise concern at this, but stopped as the Skyline swayed over to give a grinding shove against the Challenger. With the sudden shove, the passenger windows shattered like a spider's web, causing an additional rush of desperation to pierce his already erratic state. He veered off swiftly from the Skyline as he tried to do whatever he could to get some distance from it. As he struggled for even the smallest bit of space, he looked for any road he could turn on; if he couldn't out speed the pursuer he might be able to out maneuver them. To his much in his favor, he immediately found a stable turn ahead. Even with the car on his ass, he was going to make it. He got as much space as he could before he aggressively took the left turn. It was a very hot maneuver and the amount of tire squealing that was happening as he struggled to turn and brake at the same time reflected it. The maneuver was going as planned until the Skyline, who had counteracted with Sam's movement, shoved its nose against the side of the car just behind the rear wheel; the near perfect pit stop.

The Challenger was sent into a top-like spin as the rear of the car swung around with only little traction from the back wheels. Despite the suddenness of the spin, Sam somehow was able to counter this collision. With the snap of the wheel and a swift shift into reverse, he stopped the slide just to catch the momentum of the car so that it would continue the same direction only in reverse. Unfortunately, the Skyline seemed none too impressed with this and continued to barrel towards the front of the car. Sam looked forward to watch just as the pursuer shoved the nose of his car into the front of the Challenger. The engine suddenly screamed as it struggled against the shoving that was causing it to reverse faster than the gearing would allow. Sam pressed the clutch down to save the transmission as he tried his best to see who was driving the Skyline before he would attempt to get out of this desperate situation. The cabin of the vehicle was too dark and it would be fruitless to stick around any longer to get a better look.

After a moment of being shoved around, Sam suddenly let go of the clutch pedal. As damaging as this could be to the transmission, the Challenger successfully returned to reverse as the engine continued to scream painfully at the speed it was being forced through. Unwilling to play the backwards game of shove, Sam swiftly turned the steering wheel of the car in order to get away from the Skyline. The Challenger quickly whipped around to the side of the Skyline before he straightened the wheels to catch the momentum of the vehicle to face the same direction of the pursuer. Sam then, unlike the J-turn cliché of shifting into gear to keep going with the momentum of the vehicle, shoved the gas pedal to the floor as he straightened out; this lead to the rear tires spinning in reverse against the forward motion. Once the car had been straightened out and the rear tires were pulling against the car's momentum, Sam swiftly slowed the car down with the help of its brakes. The Skyline jolted ahead of the Challenger, clearly not expecting the sudden loss in speed. Sam let the car stop before he released the brake pedal and let the still reversing tires do the work in pulling the car backwards away from Skyline which had only reached the mid-process of slowing down.

Once the Challenger was reversing at a decent speed, Sam once again spun the wheel viciously to pull yet another J-turn. The car caught the momentum perfectly just as he shifted harshly into gear; the Challenger roared delightedly as it now operated under correct operational conditions. With the car now quickly making some ground from the Skyline, Sam turned back on the main road towards the direction of his father's house. As he made the turn he was surprised to almost collide with the Hummer that had been accompanied the Skyline before. The driver of the truck even had attempted, and almost succeeded, to ram into the Challenger. Sam had managed to avoid collision however. He was fueled and locked tight on concentrating on getting as far and as fast as he could away from the Skyline. Despite all of the maneuvering and action that he had taken, it wasn't long however before the lights of the Skyline appeared back on the road behind him to continue the chase.

"Sam! The phone still isn't working!" Nicky screamed. "What are we going to do!?"

Sam grimaced as the Skyline began to start catching up to the Challenger. They would never make it back to his father's house at this pace; they needed something else. They needed to gain some attention to themselves.

"Alright! Just hang on!" Sam yelled over the voluminous engine.

Sam slowed suddenly to make a quick turn onto another road towards the center of town. Not surprisingly, the Skyline followed suit and continued on gaining ground quite quickly. Sam was going for the Police station, and he was going to take the fastest route he could while making as many turns as he could. Low and behold, this lead to a discovery of a glorious saving grace. He was able to corner better than the driver of the Skyline; while it might have not done much to gain any great distances, it helped prevent any further pit maneuvers. With every passing turn, the Skyline seem to have a bit more trouble keeping traction around the corners. The driver was starting to have difficulties as the chase continued; if Sam kept this up he might just escape.

Soon he found himself sliding the Challenger onto the roadway that was near the Police station. With every ounce of finesse he could muster, he fixed the Challenger back into stable grounds as he raced down the street towards the station. As he began to get closer to the station, he pressed and held the horn of his car down. While the horn may have blared loudly, he felt as if this wouldn't be enough to alert anyone, and so he quickly turned into the parking lot where all of the off duty cars were resting. With the Skyline in tow, still behind him as he entered the police lot, he began to drift and power slide around the maze of law enforcement vehicles. More surprisingly was that the pursuing car was attempting to follow in the same crazed path that Sam was taking.

Sam wouldn't keep this up forever, but he would make sure that everyone in the whole station knew what was going on. It wouldn't be all that hard for two reasons: The first being that the Challenger and the Skyline were making an absurd amount of noise. The second was the nearly comical fact that there were a trio of police officers standing just outside of the back door of the station watching this unfold; coffee cups firmly held in their hands that were frozen in shock. Several more officers began to join them as they exited the station to witness the spectacle. With a good amount of witnesses, Sam finished his current lap around the lot before racing for the exit.

The Challenger power slid aggressively back onto the road. Sam continued the power slide to go full 180 around the road to only go onto the other street that ran along the other side of the station. He glanced out the passenger window from the Skyline in the mirror to see several of the officers entering their cars to give chase. With their situation lit up like a stadium on a clear night, the police would now get directly involved. Now that the specific task had been completed, Sam turned down another street just in time to barely miss a Dodge Charger Police cruiser that was heading back towards the station at the end of his shift. Unfortunately, the cruiser's shift was now far from over as it, after almost being struck by two speeding vehicles, redirected his course to give chase. Sam now felt a bit more at ease with an actual set of police lights behind him besides the lonely lights of the Skyline.

Sam continued on his drastic and constantly changing path; it was successfully keeping the Skyline at a bit of a distance while letting Sam stay close to the area of the station so that the Police could get a bit more assembled. After several more passes and turns the roadway had become riddled with several Ford Crown Victoria and Dodge Charger police cruisers that were trying to do what they could to stop the two seemingly crazed cars. Eventually Sam spotted two Highway Reapers joining the chase for the two. With the pursuit elevated to an acceptable level, he slid the Challenger around a Crown Victoria in the center of an intersection as he slipped back onto the main road before belting everything they car could muster. The acceleration of the Challenger and the Skyline were too much for the rest of the police cruisers, and so they were left behind as they did their best to follow. Nothing was really seemed to happen for several long moments until a pair of law enforcement vehicles clearly were catching up to the two; it was then revealed that even the acceleration of the Skyline was no longer the greatest. It came clearly second to the pair of Dodge Viper Highway Reapers that were roaring up swiftly behind the Skyline.

The Skyline seemed to back off at the two interceptors as they shoved on madly, and much to Sam's disbelief, the two spread apart to pass quickly on either side of the Skyline. Sam growled instinctively as the interceptors blew past the car that had been following him relentlessly; it was almost if they had intended to ignore the car only to go straight for him. The two Vipers quickly charged right up along each side of him and matched his speed. Before he had even hardly the time to react, the both began to steer closer to both sides of his car; as risky of a maneuver as it was, they were clearly going to try to pinch his car between each other and forcefully slow him to a stop. With the new realization that the Skyline was with some sort of law enforcement, Sam realized this might be his last run. Who knows what would happen to him if he stopped now.

_Race like it's your last..._ he almost could mentally hear Ali's voice in his head.

With a swift tightening of his knuckles and a screamed word of profanity, Sam jerked the wheel to the left. This send the Challenger viciously into the side of the left Highway Reaper. With such a collision of mass, the Viper staggered slightly only to recover soon. Sam however had snapped the wheel to the right as the Challenger swayed its weight back from the shift in motion. The Challenger rode the momentum of the sway as it slammed sickeningly into the right Viper who had kept with the formation of its partner. The collision went as well as the first but the interceptor clearly had not taken the hint, and so Sam continued to riding the momentum to go back into the left Viper once again, turning the Challenger into a pinball in close proximity to two opposing walls. Each collision was could have been crippling for anyone involved, even if the Challenger and the Vipers had been reinforced for such rough situations.

After several alternating collisions, Sam screamed furiously as he saw his chance to dispatch one of the Vipers. With a final hard jerk of the wheel, he plowed the nose of his car into the rear quarter panel of the right Highway Reaper. The driver was clearly unprepared for this as his car was violently spun around from the impact. The spinning interceptor became a metal top that spun totally out of control at 165 miles per hour down the street. While Sam recovered and continued on down the less crowded road, he failed to see the spinning Viper slam through someone's fence and straight into the front of their house.

With their partner now out of action, the other Highway Reaper gave a menacing jolt of acceleration at Sam. The nose of the Viper slammed harshly into the rear of the Challenger, causing quite the shifting of momentum to counteract with. It was clear that the driver was quite blinding infuriated as he, instead of using any conventional means of Police tactics, just continued on shoving forward against the Challenger. Eventually the two cars scraped from each over enough that the Viper dodged to the left flank of the Challenger. With quite the amount of determination, the interceptor turned sharply at the Challenger's rear quarter panel for a high speed pit maneuver. What happened next was not expected by Sam. As the Highway Reaper began to turn sharply towards the Challenger, its lights burnt out and its siren chirped loudly as a spray of quite visible sparks shot out from every crevice of the hood and front of the car. As they did, the interceptor's front tires screeched as they locked up tightly, frozen in place as if the brakes had been fully applied. The Viper quickly decelerated and disappeared in the night of Sam's rear view leaving only the lights of the Skyline behind them. The way that the last Highway Reaper was dispatched greatly bothered Sam. It was totally unexpected and it only added to the complete uncertainty that he held towards this situation.

_What the hell was going on?!_

With the Challenger now left isolated with no Vipers to surround it, the Skyline accelerated quickly as it returned to give continued pressure on Sam; he couldn't keep this up. His hope of escape was diminishing and he figured that if he could not get away from this guy then he may as well just drive into a brick wall and end it by his own hand. He was willing to attempt to out maneuver it once again; it had worked well before, so it may be the key to his escape. Maybe he could even get the Skyline to wreck itself on something, and so he shifted the mass of the slowing Challenger around yet another corner to begin his radical path one final time.

Just like before, Sam kept as collected as he could be and was able to handle the cornering better. The chase had seemed to have been taking a toll on the Skyline's driver as well; he was starting to get sloppy and his cornering was getting more stressed. Several of his turns were close calls to the curb of the road. Sam did his best to make a path that would not only throw off the pursuer, but he also made sure to stay off any roads that the cops would possibly be on. This proved quite successful for the latter. It was a bit awkward however as Sam continued making passes. The Skyline driver seemed to be learning Sam's impulses and was starting to prepare for the turns in unison and sometimes even before Sam made them. It eventually reached a point in which Sam was begging to worry. Was he herding now being herded?

Sam took a corner hard around a post office on some small road. He almost clipped the inside curb with the front of his car. The mistake was minimal enough that Sam slid the Challenger around appropriately so that he would not lose control as he turned on the street. What he didn't account for was finding that the same Hummer that was originally with the Skyline charging down the same road towards them. He also didn't expect the large vehicle to turn sharply, exposing its large passenger broadside as it slid to a stop in front of the Challenger's power sliding trajectory. Sam, unable to change the way the Challenger was taking the turn, slammed on the brakes to stop the car before it slammed into the side of the stopped vehicle ahead.

The Challenger bogged down painfully as its tires screeched loudly as they desperately tried to halt the car. Sam was able to make quite the attempt at slowing down enough so that they didn't impact the Hummer with lethal force. The Challenger's nose did end up giving quite the shunt at five miles per hour before the collision jarred all involved in their seats as the vehicle stopped. Sam growled and swiftly shifted into reverse as he went to back up; he tried to save his error before he the Skyline reached them. However, he looked back to reverse just as the nose of the Skyline softly shoved against the Challenger's rear, leaving the vehicle effectively stuck between two vehicles.

Unwilling to face defeat, Sam quickly snatched his hand over to the side of the center console and grabbed his HK45. Nicky groaned his name in a dazed state as she watched him open his door. He exited his car quickly and drew his aim towards the Skyline. In his desperation he had not seen who had exited the Hummer, and so he was oblivious to who or what struck the back of his neck. And while there was no pain to be felt from whatever it was, he simply found himself instantly falling limp to the pavement, weapon still tightly in his hand. The last thing that he saw before blacking out was a pair of armored hooves approaching him from the Hummer.


End file.
